Ultra-shallow Junction Formed by Plasma Doping and Laser Annealing
We investigated ultra-shallow junction prepared by plasma doping (PLAD) and laser annealing (LA). Although PLAD is promising doping technology for the sub-45nm technology node due to the high dose rate at low energy, it has problems which is related with hydrogen or fluorine. The implanted hydrogen generally increases damage in the Si substrate. The fluorine also retards dopant activation and increases dopant deactivation during post-annealing step. Conventional one step annealing processes such as rapid thermal annealing (RTA) or excimer laser annealing (LA) are not effective method for high dopant activation. To minimize the effect of hydrogen or fluorine, we propose additional pre-annealing followed by conventional laser annealing. By employing low temperature pre-annealing, we can improve electrical characteristics such as low sheet resistance, high activation rates, shallow junction depth and reduced dopant deactivation. The improvement can be explained by reduced defect density and out-diffusion of fluorine or hydrogen which in turn enhances dopant activation during ELA
Silicon layer transfer using plasma hydrogenation
In this work, we demonstrate a novel approach for the transfer of Si layers onto handle wafers, induced by plasma hydrogenation. In the conventional ion-cut process, hydrogen ion implantation is used to initiate layer delamination at a desired depth, which leads to ion damage in the transferred layer. In this study, we investigated the use of plasma hydrogenation to achieve high-quality layer transfer. To place hydrogen atoms introduced during plasma hydrogenation at a specific depth, a uniform trapping layer for H atoms must be prepared in the substrate before hydrogenation. The hydrogenated Si wafer was then bonded to another Si wafer coated with a thermal oxide, followed by thermal annealing to induce Si layer transfer. Cross-section transmission electron microscopy showed that the transferred Si layer was relatively free of lattice damage. The H trapping during plasma hydrogenation, and the subsequent layer delamination mechanism, are discussed. These results show direct evidence of the feasibility of using plasma hydrogenation to transfer relatively defect-free Si layers.
EFFECT OF SAMPLE PREPARATION ON WATER TREE RESISTANCE OF XLPE/SEBS BLENDS
The effects of an aromatic polymer, such as poly[styrene-b-(ethylene-co-butylene)b-styrene] (SEBS), and its preparation processes on water tree resistance, morphology, crystallinity, dielectric constant and dielectric loss tangent of crosslinked polyethylene (XLPE)/SEBS and XLPE/SEBS/ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) blends were investigated. The XLPE/SEBS samples were characterized by means of differential scanning calorimetry, scanning electron microscopy, dielectric spectral analysis and the accelerated water treeing experiment. The results clearly showed that although SEBS was partially compatible with LDPE and it was dispersed evenly in XLPE matrix, the blends demonstrated excellent dielectric performances, such as dielectric constant and dissipation factor. The crystallinity of XLPE/SEBS blends was decreased with increase in SEBS content and it was further decreased with the addition of EVA. SEBS could effectively improve the water-tree resistance of XLPE and both SEBS and EVA were found to improve the water tree resistance of XLPE synergistically as expected. The differences in sample preparation processes could change the phase morphology and dielectric performance of the blends, and could also influence the dispersion of SEBS in XLPE matrix as well as the crystallinity of the blends. Different preparation processes led to different water tree resistance behaviours of the samples. The improvement of SEBS dispersion in XLPE matrix helped to improve the water tree resistance of XLPE.