A MOS transistor formed on a substrate including single crystal silicon in an active region of the substrate where the transistor is formed, the active region being separated by field insulation regions from other active regions on the substrate, the MOS transistor comprising:
- a gate on the top surface of the active region of the substrate, including gate insulation on said substrate and a gate electrode on said gate insulation;
- insulating side walls on opposite sides of said gate formed by anisotropic etching which removes insulating material from horizontal surfaces and leaves vertical insulating side walls, such that each said insulating side wall is a vertical surface of insulating material adjacent a horizontal surface area of the top surface, said vertical insulating side walls each having a thickness generally in the range of 70 .ANG. to 500 .ANG.;
- a source electrode formed of polycrystalline silicon on said substrate, said source electrode including a source strap portion extending adjacent a vertical side wall of said gate and contacting the top surface of the active region adjacent said side wall and a source interconnect region extending over the adjacent field insulation region, said source strap portion being greater than 1500 .ANG. thick measured perpendicularly to the surface of the substrate;
- a drain electrode formed of polycrystalline silicon on said substrate on the opposite side of said gate from said source electrode, said drain electrode including a drain strap portion extending adjacent the vertical side wall of said gate and contacting the top surface of the active region adjacent said side wall and a drain interconnect region extending over the adjacent field insulation region, said drain strap portion being greater than 1500 .ANG. thick measured perpendicularly to the surface of the substrate;
- said source and drain interconnect regions being where the respective source and drain electrodes are connected to external MOS transistor interconnects;
- said source and drain electrodes being implanted with doping impurities which are diffused through the polycrystalline silicon of said source and drain electrodes and into the single crystal silicon of the substrate;
- a source junction region in the substrate beneath where the source strap portion of said source electrode contacts the top surface of the substrate, said source junction region having a junction depth which is the depth the doping impurities diffuse from the overlying source strap portion of said source electrode into the substrate;
- a drain junction region in the substrate beneath where the drain strap portion of said drain electrode contacts the top surface of the substrate;
- said drain junction region having a junction depth which is the depth the doping impurities diffuse from the overlying drain strap portion of said drain electrode into the substrate;
- and
- said junction depth for each said source and drain junction region being a fraction of the thickness of the strap portion of the overlying electrode based on the substantially lower rate of impurity diffusion through single crystal silicon verses polycrystalline silicon, whereby thin junction regions are produced.