Ultrashallow contact formation in low-power electronic circuits using patterned high-power XeCl lasers

Summary form only given. Ultratech Stepper has built an advanced projection gas immersion laser doping tool and demonstrated ultrashallow contact formation using the newly developed equipment. By producing nanosecond-duration, high-fluence patterned beams of ultraviolet light, the new tool enables area-selective heating of silicon ICs on a submicron scale. The selective heating is used to drive thermal doping, annealing and silicidation processes. The nanosecond thermal process allows fabrication of impurity junctions and low resistance silicide films as shallow as 25 nm in depth. In this paper we first describe the process results, then present the tool design.