Low Temperature Microwave Anneal in FinFET Fabrication

Low temperature anneal solutions are attractive for 7 nm CMOS transistor fabrication and beyond. This desire is driven by the introduction of new materials, novel integration flows and alternate device architectures that are incompatible with high temperature anneal solutions. Recently, microwave anneal has emerged as a potential approach for low temperature processing. In this paper, we demonstrate an alternate low temperature anneal run path using microwave anneal for Titanium silicidation. Microwave annealed split had matched or better contact resistivity and device performance compared to mSec annealed split. HRTEM of both anneal processes revealed comparable silicidation. Densification of FCVD grown oxide film using low temperature microwave anneal is also exhibited. The wet etch rate ratio (WERR) achieved by the low temperature microwave annealed split was comparable to that attained in high temperature steam oxidation process. This low temperature process could be highly useful in the fabrication of devices that use materials that suffer from unwanted diffusion, oxidization, and defects resulting from high temperature anneals.