A novel activation method for a B dopant implanted in a Si substrate using a soft X-ray undulator was examined. As the photon energy of the irradiated soft X-ray approached the energy of the core level of Si 2p, the activation ratio increased. The effect of soft X-ray irradiation on B activation was remarkable at temperatures lower than 400°C. The activation energy of B activation by soft X-ray irradiation (0.06 eV) was lower than that of B activation by furnace annealing (0.18 eV). The activation of the B dopant by soft X-ray irradiation occurs at low temperature, although the activation ratio shows small values of 6.2×10-3 at 110°C. The activation by soft X-ray is caused not only by thermal effects, but also electron excitation and atomic movement.

A test structure to separately measure sheet resistances of highly-doped-drain (HDD) and lightly-doped-drain (LDD) in LDD-type CMOSFETs with various gate spaces S having sub-100 nm sidewalls was proposed. From the reciprocal of source/drain-resistance R-1 versus S characteristics, the sheet resistance ρH of the high-conductive-region (HCR) corresponding to HDD and the approximate width WLC of the low-conductive-region (LCR) corresponding to LDD could be estimated. Both of ρH and WLC for p- and n-MOS devices were scarcely dependent on the gate voltage. The sidewall-width difference of 40 nm could be sufficiently detected by using the test structure with the S pitch of about 60 nm. The R-1 versus S characteristics showed the unstable resistance variations in the narrow S region less than 0.3 µm, which corresponded to the minimum S for the process used for the test device fabrication and suggested that various micro-loading effects seriously affected on the characteristics.

Ultra shallow low-resistive junction formation has been investigated for sub-100-nm MOSFETs using antimony implantation. The pileup at the Si/SiO2 interface and the resulting dopant loss during annealing is a common obstacle for antimony and arsenic to reduce junction sheet resistance. Though implanted arsenic gives rise to pileup even with a few seconds duration RTA (Rapid Thermal Annealing), antimony pileup was suppressed with the RTA at relatively low temperature, such as 800 or 900. As a result, low sheet resistance of 260 Ω/sq. was obtained for a 24 nm depth junction with antimony. These results indicate that antimony is superior to arsenic as a dopant for ultra shallow extension formation. However, increase in antimony concentration above 11020 cm-3 gives rise to precipitation and it limits the sheet resistance reduction of the antimony doped junctions. Redistribution behaviors of antimony relating to the pileup and the precipitation are discussed utilizing SIMS (Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry) depth profiles.