Method of thermal processing structures formed on a substrate

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10141191-B2
Application number	US-85565210-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 12, 2010
Priority date	Mar 8, 2006
Publication date	Nov 27, 2018
Grant date	Nov 27, 2018

Abstract

The present invention generally describes one ore more methods that are used to perform an annealing process on desired regions of a substrate. In one embodiment, an amount of energy is delivered to the surface of the substrate to preferentially melt certain desired regions of the substrate to remove unwanted damage created from prior processing steps (e.g., crystal damage from implant processes), more evenly distribute dopants in various regions of the substrate, and/or activate various regions of the substrate. The preferential melting processes will allow more uniform distribution of the dopants in the melted region, due to the increased diffusion rate and solubility of the dopant atoms in the molten region of the substrate. The creation of a melted region thus allows: 1) the dopant atoms to redistribute more uniformly, 2) defects created in prior processing steps to be removed, and 3) regions that have hyper-abrupt dopant concentrations to be formed.

First claim

We claim:

1. A method of thermally processing a substrate, comprising:
positioning the substrate on a substrate support comprising a heating element and increasing the temperature of the substrate;
delivering a first energy from a first energy source to the substrate; and
delivering a second energy from a second energy source to the substrate, wherein the first energy or the second energy is annealing energy and the annealing energy is polarized laser energy, and wherein the first energy and the second energy individually are insufficient to cause any portion of the substrate to melt.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first energy source is a laser and the second energy source is a laser.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the first energy elevates the temperature of the substrate surface to a first temperature, and the second energy brings the temperature of the substrate surface to a second temperature that completes the thermal processing.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second energy source comprises a series of lasers.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein an amount of the second energy is less than an amount of the first energy.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first energy and the second energy are delivered to a first region of the substrate, the first region having an area less than a surface of the substrate.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first energy comprises a pulse of energy from the first energy source, and the second energy comprises a pulse of energy from the second energy source.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first energy and the second energy when combined cause a portion the substrate to melt.

9. A method of thermally processing a substrate, comprising:
delivering a first energy from a first energy source to the substrate; and
delivering a second energy from a second energy source to the substrate, wherein at least one of the first energy and the second energy are polarized laser energy, the first energy and the second energy individually are insufficient to cause any portion of the substrate to melt, and the first energy and the second energy combined cause a portion of the substrate to melt.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein both the first energy and the second energy are polarized laser energy.

11. A method of thermally processing a substrate, comprising:
positioning the substrate on a substrate support comprising a heating element and increasing the temperature of the substrate;
delivering a first energy from a first energy source to a region of the substrate; and
delivering a second energy from a second energy source to the region of the substrate, wherein the first energy or the second energy is annealing energy and the annealing energy is polarized laser energy, and wherein the first energy and the second energy individually are insufficient to cause the region of the substrate to melt.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the first energy source is a laser and the second energy source is a laser.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the first energy elevates the temperature of the substrate surface to a first temperature, and the second energy brings the temperature of the substrate surface to a second temperature that completes the thermal processing.

14. The method of claim 11 , wherein the second energy source comprises a series of lasers.

15. The method of claim 11 , wherein an amount of the second energy is less than an amount of the first energy.

16. The method of claim 11 , wherein the first energy comprises a pulse of energy from the first energy source, and the second energy comprises a pulse of energy from the second energy source.

17. The method of claim 11 , wherein the first energy and the second energy when combined cause the region of the substrate to melt.

Assignees

• Carey Paul
• Hunter Aaron Muir
• Jennings Dean
• Mayur Abhilash J
• Moffatt Stephen
• Schaffer William
• Thomas Timothy N
• Yam Mark
• Applied Materials Inc

Inventors

• Carey Paul
• Hunter Aaron Muir
• Jennings Dean
• Mayur Abhilash J
• Moffatt Stephen
• Schaffer William
• Thomas Timothy N
• Yam Mark

Classifications

• H10P72/0436

  mainly by radiation · CPC title

• H10P95/90

  Thermal treatments, e.g. annealing or sintering · CPC title

• H10P34/42

  with electromagnetic radiation, e.g. laser annealing (laser cutting H10P54/20) · CPC title

• H10P30/21

  of electrically active species · CPC title

• H10P30/208

  of electrically inactive species · CPC title