Method for manufacturing improved sidewall structures for use in semiconductor devices

A method for manufacturing an integrated circuit, comprising:

• forming semiconductor devices over a substrate, including;
• forming gate structures over the substrate;
• placing source/drain extension implants into the substrate proximate the gate structures;
• forming sidewall spacers on opposing sidewalls of the gate structures after placing the source/drain extension implants into the substrate, the sidewall spacers having a first width
• reducing the first width to a second smaller width after forming the sidewall spacers;
• and
• annealing the source/drain extension implants to form source/drain regions after reducing the first width of the sidewall spacers;
• and
• forming dielectric layers over the semiconductor devices, the dielectric layers having interconnects therein for contacting the semiconductor devices and thereby forming an operational integrated circuit.