Dopant diffusion with short high temperature anneal pulses
AssigneeApplied Materials, Inc.
InventorWolfgang R. ADERHOLD
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Abstract
A method and apparatus for diffusing a dopant within a semiconductor device is described. The method includes performing a dynamic surface anneal in which a substrate is placed inside of a process volume with a mixture of an inert gas and a small amount of oxygen gas. The surface of the substrate is then exposed to one or more rapid laser pulses. The rapid laser bursts diffuse dopant from a doped layer into the substrate. The doped layer is formed during a previous process operation. The temperature and number of laser pulses control the amount of diffusion of the dopant into the substrate. Other dynamic surface anneal operations may be optionally performed before or after the oxygenated dynamic surface anneal operation.
Claims20
A method of diffusing a dopant, comprising:
- flowing an inert gas into a process volume of a process chamber;
- flowing an oxygen containing gas into the process volume such that an oxygen partial pressure of the oxygen containing gas is about 0.1% to about 10% within the process volume;
- and
- exposing a portion of a substrate within the process volume to an anneal process to heat the portion of the substrate to a temperature of greater than about 850° C. and diffuse the dopant into the substrate, wherein a layer with a dopant concentration of greater than about 1·1020 atoms/cm3 is on a top surface of the substrate during exposing of the portion of the substrate to the annealing process.
A method of diffusing a dopant, comprising:
- cleaning a top surface of a substrate by selectively etching an oxide from the top surface of the substrate;
- flowing an inert gas into a process volume of a process chamber;
- flowing an oxygen containing gas into the process volume such that an oxygen partial pressure of the oxygen containing gas is about 0.1% to about 10% within the process volume;
- and
- exposing a portion of a substrate within the process volume to an anneal process to heat the portion of the substrate to a temperature of greater than about 850° C. and diffuse the dopant into the substrate, wherein a layer with a dopant concentration of greater than about 1·1020 atoms/cm3 is on a top surface of the substrate during exposing of the portion of the substrate to the annealing process.
A method of diffusing a dopant, comprising:
- depositing a doped layer over a top surface of a substrate using a thermal decomposition process;
- flowing an inert gas into a process volume of a process chamber;
- flowing an oxygen containing gas into the process volume such that an oxygen partial pressure of the oxygen containing gas is about 0.1% to about 10% within the process volume;
- and
- exposing a portion of a substrate within the process volume to an anneal process to heat the portion of the substrate to a temperature of greater than about 850° C. and diffuse the dopant into the substrate, wherein a layer with a dopant concentration of greater than about 1·1020 atoms/cm3 is on a top surface of the substrate during exposing of the portion of the substrate to the annealing process.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.