Integration of melting excimer laser annealing in power MOS technology

The integration of excimer laser annealing (ELA) into the power MOS device technology has been studied and evaluated. The integration issues include patterning effect, extreme nonequilibrium kinetics of dopant and defects, material modification due to the melting-regrowth phenomena (in the melting regime), and residual implant damage. We demonstrated that ELA can be applied as a reliable, effective, and, advantageous process in the context of semiconductor device fabrication. In particular, power MOS field-effect transistors were successfully fabricated with superior electrical characteristics than those fabricated according to the standard process. Optimization of the process was achieved through extensive characterization analyse, while an intense research effort was dedicated to the development of a technology computer-aided design tool for the simulation of the laser annealing process in Si-based devices. The electrical characterization of the transistor fabricated by ELA is presented, showing a device yield of 90% on wafer.