Pulsed Laser Annealing of Silicon-Carbon Source/Drain in MuGFETs for Enhanced Dopant Activation and High Substitutional Carbon Concentration

We report for the first time, the use of pulsed laser annealing (PLA) on multiple-gate field-effect transistors (MuGFETs) with silicon-carbon (Si_1-xC_x) source and drain (S/D) for enhanced dopant activation and improved strain effects. Si_1-xC_x. S/D exposed to consecutive laser irradiations demonstrated superior dopant activation with a ~60% reduction in resistivity compared to rapid thermal annealed S/D. In addition, with the application of PLA on epitaxially grown Si_0.99C_0.01 substitutional carbon concentration C_sub increased from 1.0% (as grown) to 1.21%. This is also significantly higher than the C_sub of 0.71% for rapid thermal annealed Si_0.99C_0.01 S/D. With a higher strain and enhanced dopant activation, MuGFETs with laser annealed Si_0.99C_0.01 S/D show a ~53% drain-current improvement compared to MuGFETs with rapid thermal annealed Si_0.99C_0.01 S/D.