The European answer to the integration issues of excimer laser annealing in MOS technology

Excimer laser annealing (ELA) of MOSFET devices is currently studied and evaluated within the frame of the IST project “Fundamentals and applications of laser processing for highly innovative MOS technology” (FLASH), funded by the European Commission. This European consortium aim to demonstrate that ELA can be industrialized in the context of semiconductor device fabrication. The technical achievement of homogeneous irradiation of entire wafers by industrial line beam system set up has been combined with device design solutions, in order to avoid the detrimental effects of the laser beam on device structures and tackle the integration issues, main obstacles for the use of ELA in the semiconductor industry. The launch of ELA, to open a new market segment in the semiconductor industry, implies also the availability of reliable process simulation tools. Therefore, a simulation program based on the phase-field method was produced, fully working and available.