Shallow junction formation via lateral boron autodoping during rapid thermal process

Abstract Autodoping is a well-known phenomenon of unwanted dopant transfer in silicon epitaxy process. In this work, we discovered boron lateral autodoping in normal rapid thermal process (RTP) and used it to controllably form shallow junctions for device fabrication. The redeposition of boron from the gas phase to the solid surface was identified to be the limiting step of the boron incorporation into the undoped silicon area in the RTP process. At a given RTP temperature, boron autodoping could be increased by elevating the concentration of the boron source or enhancing the evaporation coefficient. Extending the annealing time can substantially improve the uniformity of the boron concentration in the gas phase, thus reducing the pattern dependence of the autodoping results. In addition, the autodoping process also avoids the traps and defects induced by ion implantation. Therefore, the described mechanism holds great promise for shallow junction formation in selectively patterned area with low cost.