Si Front-End Processing

Electrical device parameters are largely set by the three-dimensional dopant profiles created during front-end processing. Ion implantation, silicidation and annealing treatments in various ambients influence the Si native point-defect populations in characteristic ways, so that the final dopant profile of a device is the result of complex interactions between dopant atoms, Si point defects and the various interfaces. These interactions can no longer be assumed to be at equilibrium and one-dimensional. This makes computer-aided technology development imperative, requiring accurate, truly predictive, physics-based process simulation tools. The reliability of these tools depends, in turn, on data from laboratory-scale experiments to motivate and validate the physical models. This book reviews developments in experiment and modelling, and identifies key issues for future research. It broadens the focus of earlier symposia from strictly TCAD issues, to include sections on 2-D profiling, SiGe and nitrogen, and by including a joint session with the 'Advanced Semiconductor Wafer Engineering' symposium titled Mechanisms of Point-Defect Interaction and Diffusion.