METHOD OF THERMAL PROCESSING STRUCTURES FORMED ON A SUBSTRATE
First Claim
1. A method of thermally processing a substrate, comprising:
- positioning a substrate on a substrate support; and
delivering a plurality of electromagnetic energy pulses to first area on a surface of a substrate that is in thermal communication with a first region of the substrate, wherein delivering a plurality of electromagnetic energy pulses comprises;
delivering a first pulse of electromagnetic energy to the surface of the substrate;
delivering a second pulse of electromagnetic energy to the surface of the substrate; and
adjusting the time between the start of the first pulse and the start of the second pulse so that the material contained in the first region melts.
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Accused Products
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.
131 Citations
28 Claims
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1. A method of thermally processing a substrate, comprising:
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positioning a substrate on a substrate support; and delivering a plurality of electromagnetic energy pulses to first area on a surface of a substrate that is in thermal communication with a first region of the substrate, wherein delivering a plurality of electromagnetic energy pulses comprises; delivering a first pulse of electromagnetic energy to the surface of the substrate; delivering a second pulse of electromagnetic energy to the surface of the substrate; and adjusting the time between the start of the first pulse and the start of the second pulse so that the material contained in the first region melts. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A method of thermally processing a substrate, comprising:
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positioning a substrate on a substrate support; and delivering electromagnetic energy to a surface of a substrate that is in thermal communication with a first region and a second region of the substrate, wherein delivering electromagnetic energy comprises; delivering a first amount of electromagnetic energy at a first wavelength to preferentially melt a material contained in the first region rather than the second region; and delivering a second amount of electromagnetic energy at a second wavelength to preferentially melt the material contained in the first region rather than the second region, wherein the delivering a second amount of electromagnetic energy and the delivering a first amount of electromagnetic energy overlap in time. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. A method of thermally processing a substrate, comprising:
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positioning a substrate on a substrate support; delivering electromagnetic energy to a first area on a surface of a substrate that is in thermal communication with a first region and a second region of the substrate, wherein delivering electromagnetic energy comprises; delivering a first amount of electromagnetic energy at a first wavelength to preferentially melt a material contained in the first region rather than the second region; and delivering a second amount of electromagnetic energy at a first wavelength to preferentially melt the material contained in the first region rather than the second region after the first amount of electromagnetic energy; and delivering electromagnetic energy to a second area on the surface of the substrate that is in thermal communication with a third region and a fourth region of the substrate, wherein the second area is generally adjacent to the first area and delivering electromagnetic energy comprises; delivering a first amount of electromagnetic energy at a first wavelength to preferentially melt a material contained in the third region rather than the fourth region; and delivering a second amount of electromagnetic energy at a first wavelength to preferentially melt the material contained in the third region rather than the fourth region after the first amount of electromagnetic energy. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21, 22)
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23. A method of thermally processing a substrate, comprising:
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delivering an amount of electromagnetic energy to a first area on a surface of a substrate to cause a material in one or more regions within the first area to melt; and delivering an amount of electromagnetic energy to a second area on the surface of the substrate to cause a material in one or more regions within the second area to melt, wherein the first area and the second area on the surface of the substrate are generally adjacent to each other. - View Dependent Claims (24, 25, 26, 27)
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28. A method of thermally processing a substrate, comprising:
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positioning a substrate on a substrate support; and delivering electromagnetic energy to a surface of a substrate that is in thermal communication with a first region and second region of the substrate, wherein delivering electromagnetic energy comprises; adjusting the shape of a pulse of electromagnetic energy as a function of time to preferentially melt the material contained in the first region.
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Specification