cw laser anneal of polycrystalline silicon: Crystalline structure, electrical properties

Abstract

0.4-μm-thick polycrystalline silicon deposited in a low-pressure CVD reactor was implanted with B to a dose of 5×1014/cm2 and then irradiated in a cw laser scanning apparatus. The laser annealing produced an increase in grain size from ∼500 Å to long narrow crystals of the order of ∼25×2 μ, as observed by TEM. Each grain was found to be defect free and extended all the way to the underlying Si3N4. Electrical measurements show 100% doping activity with a Hall mobility of about 45 cm2/V sec, which is close to single-crystal mobility at the same carrier concentration. Thermal annealing produces material with an average grain size of 1000 Å and a resistivity higher by a factor of 2.2 than that obtained with the laser anneal. Laser annealing performed after a thermal anneal reduces the resistivity to approximately the same value obtained by laser annealing only.