Medium energy ion scattering analysis of the evolution and annealing of damage and associated dopant redistribution of ultra shallow implants in Si

As junction depths in advanced semiconductor devices move to below 20 nm, the process of disorder evolution during ion implantation at ultra low energies becomes increasingly influenced by the surface. This may also hold for shallow regrowth and dopant redistribution processes during subsequent thermal annealing of the substrate. The investigation of these near-surface processes requires analytical techniques with a depth resolution of≤1 nm. Medium energy ion scattering (MEIS) has the unique capability of simultaneously providing quantitative, high-resolution depth distributions of implant disorder (displaced Si lattice atoms) and of implanted atoms, albeit not of light species. We report here a comparative MEIS investigation into the growth mode of shallow disordered/amorphised layers during≤1 keV B+ and 2.5 keV As+ ion implantation into Si. In both cases the growth of the damage depth profiles differs significantly from the energy deposition function, as it is strongly determined on the one hand by the proximity of the surface acting as a nucleation site for migrating point defects formed during implantation, which results in planar growth of the amorphous layer, and on the other by the dynamic annealing processes operating at room temperature. When such defect recombination processes are inhibited, e.g. for low dose, ultra shallow 200 eV B+ implants, MEIS shows that defect production yields exceeding the Kinchin–Pease model predictions are achieved. For As implants, a correlation is observed between the movement of the As and the depth of the growing, planar amorphous layer. Thermal annealing of As implanted samples at different temperatures and durations leads to solid phase epitaxial regrowth. During regrowth, MEIS shows that there is a close correlation between damage dissolution, the movement of nearly half of the As dopant into substitutional sites and the snowploughing of a fraction of the As in front of the advancing amorphous/crystalline interface leading to the formation of a less than 1 nm wide As pile-up layer trapped under the oxid