The difference of chemical binding states between ultra shallow plasma doping (PD) and ion implantation (I/I) samples studied by hard X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (HX-PES)

We measured HX-PES (Si 1s) of low energy ion implanted silicon substrate before and after spike RTA, and compared it with that of plasma doped (PD) samples. As-doped I/I sample showed higher hole density compared to as-doped PD sample due to lower defect induced carrier trap. After spike RTA, PD sample showed superior impurity activation than that of I/I sample. Both I/I sample and PD sample showed excellent recrystallization after spike RTA. HX-PES can be very useful for optimizing the semiconductor doping and thermal activation processes for advanced micro-devices that have the junction depth shallower than 10 nm.