Fabrication of ultra-shallow p-n junctions in Si using fast and ultra-fast annealing

Ultra-shallow p-n junctions in silicon play an important role in the semiconductor industry, for example as source-drain extensions in highly integrated MOSFETs or in this case as piezo-resistive bending sensors for application in massively parallel AFM arrays.
To obtain ultra-shallow junctions several methods of fabrication have been employed: low energy ion implantation and vacancy enhancement near the sample surface by using high energy Si⁺ implantation followed by in-diffusion of boron from a solid source. The activation of the dopant was accomplished either by rapid thermal annealing or flash lamp annealing.
I-V measurements of the diode formed by the p-n junction show excellent diode behaviour of the p-doped layers, indicating that all employed fabrication methods result in real p-n junctions. The concentration depth profile of boron in the samples have been measured by SIMS, using O₂ ^- ions of 1500 and 500eV to minimise distortion of the depth profile due to the ion bombardment. Finally, measured sheet resistances of the p-doped layers obtained from dedicated test structures are compared against each other.