Full low temperature microwave processed Ge CMOS achieving diffusion-less junction and Ultrathin 7.5nm Ni mono-germanide

For the first time, Ge CMOS with all thermal processes performed by microwave annealing (MWA) has been realized. The full MWA process is under 390 ^oC. It significantly outperforms conventional rapid thermal annealing (RTA) process in 3 aspects: (1) Diffusion-less junction: for easily diffused n-type dopant, phosphorous (P), the ion implantation dopant profile after the MWA activation process remains unchanged. (2) Increased C_ox and lower gate leakage: the low temperature activation process leads to less Ge out-diffusion during MWA than RTA, suppressing the degradation of gate dielectric/ Ge channel interface. (3) Ultrathin 7.5nm Ni mono-germanide with low sheet resistance (Rs) and contact resistivity: after two-step MWA, a thin mono-NiGe layer was obtained which has larger crystallite size to lower Rs. Ge n- and p-MOSFET were also demonstrated. Compared to conventional RTA, the MWA gives 50% and 24% drive current enhancement for p- and n-MOSFET, respectively. These data show that the low temperature MWA is a very promising thermal process technology for Ge CMOS manufacturing.