Native silicon oxide agglomeration prior to solid-phase epitaxy using rapid thermal processing

The effect of process parameters on the quality of recrystallized material using rapid thermal processing (RTP) was evaluated. Both X-ray rocking curve and Read camera analysis were used to verify the crystalline quality of the regrown material. It is shown that RTP is a viable method for agglomerating the interfacial oxide at a silicon/polysilicon boundary before epitaxial growth. The material quality was observed to improve with increasing RTP time and temperature cycles. The optimum thermal anneal cycle was 600 degrees C for 18 h and 800 degrees C for 3 h. The improvement in the number of defects over the previously used ion implantation process is about two orders of magnitude.<>