Method of thermal processing structures formed on a substrate
First 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.
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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.
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Citations
17 Claims
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1. A method of thermally processing a substrate, comprising:
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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. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A method of thermally processing a substrate, comprising:
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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. - View Dependent Claims (10)
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11. A method of thermally processing a substrate, comprising:
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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. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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Specification