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SiGe has been widely used for source/drain (S/D) engineering in pMOSFETs to enhance channel mobility. In this study, selective Si1-xGex growth (0.25 ≤ x ≤ 0.35) with boron concentration of 1-3 × 1020 cm-3 in the process for 22 nm node complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) has been investigated and optimized. The growth parameters were carefully tuned to achieve deposition of high quality and highly strained material. The thermal budget was decreased to 800 °C to suppress dopant diffusion, to minimize Si loss in S/D recesses, and to preserve the S/D recess shape. Two layers of Si1-xGex were deposited: a bottom layer with high Ge content (x = 0.35) which filled the recess and a cap layer with low Ge content (x = 0.25) which was elevated in the S/D regions. The elevated SiGe cap layer was intended to be consumed during the Ni-silicidation process in order to avoid strain reduction in the channel region arising from strain relaxation in SiGe S/D. In this study, a kinetic gas model was also applied to predict the pattern dependency of the growth and to determine the epi-profile in different transistor arrays. The input parameters include growth temperature, partial pressures of reactant gases, and chip layout. By using this model, the number of test wafers for epitaxy experiments can be decreased significantly. When the epitaxy process parameters can be readily predicted by the model for epi-profile control in an advanced chip design, fast and cost-effective process development can be achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The intrinsic diffusion of phosphorus and boron in high-purity epitaxial silicon films has been studied. Phosphorus diffusion in a wide temperature range (810 to 1100 °C) revealed diffusion coefficients with an Arrhenius behavior exhibiting an activation energy of 2.74 ± 0.07 eV and a pre-exponential factor of (8 ± 5) × 10[sup -4] cm²/s. In the temperature range of 810 to 1050 °C, boron was found to diffuse with an activation energy of 3.12±0.04 eV and a pre-exponential factor of 0.06± 0.02 cm²/s. These results differ from those of many previous studies, but this deviation may to a large extent be attributed to slow transients before equilibrium concentrations of point defects are established at temperatures below ∼1000 °C. Despite a similar diffusion mechanism mediated by Si self-interstitials, P exhibits a lower activation energy than B because of stronger bonding to the Si self-interstitial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]