Implant Annealing – An Evolution from Soak over Spike to Millisecond Annealing

This work presents a summary on the use of rapid thermal processing for implant annealing. It gives a short historical overview of rapid thermal processing systems and the first implant anneal processes on these newly developed tools. We then looked in detail on the soak anneal and spike anneal processes and the influence of certain process parameters. For the soak anneal influences of the ambient, either oxidizing or nitriding, were evaluated. The results of spike anneal processes are influenced by the pre-stabilization temperature, ramp-up and ramp-down rate, peak temperature, and gaseous ambient. The need for shallow, abrupt and highly activated junctions leads to co-implantation of species like fluorine or carbon in conjunction with pre-amorphization. Nowadays, combinations of spike and millisecond annealing as well as millisecond annealing alone are in the focus.