Innos Ltd and The University of Southampton announce new technique for suppressing Boron Diffusion in Silicon-Germanium

Citation

(2005), "Innos Ltd and The University of Southampton announce new technique for suppressing Boron Diffusion in Silicon-Germanium", Microelectronics International, Vol. 22 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/mi.2005.21822aab.002

Innos Ltd and The University of Southampton announce new technique for suppressing Boron Diffusion in Silicon-Germanium

Innos Ltd and The University of Southampton announce new technique for suppressing Boron Diffusion in Silicon-Germanium

Keywords: Research, Silicon, Electrical engineering

Innos Ltd, the UK's leading research and development company delivering expertise in silicon, MEMS and nanotechnologies, has jointly patented, with The University of Southampton, a new technique that enables the suppression of boron diffusion in silicon-germanium (SiGe) using fluorine implantation.

Groundbreaking research conducted at Innos' new facilities, by a team of experts from both The University of Southampton and Innos has shown that a properly optimised fluorine implant not only eliminates transient enhanced diffusion of boron, but also dramatically reduces normal boron thermal diffusion.

“Boron diffusion has traditionally been a major problem in both silicon and SiGe devices, having a significant impact on the scalability of MOS and bipolar technologies”, comments Director at Innos, Peter Ashburn.

In SiGe heterojunction bipolar transistors, Boron diffusion limits the achievable basewidth and therefore degrades the high frequency performance of the transistor. In the halo region of a metal-oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET), it degrades the abruptness of the source/drain extension profiles and hence worsens short channel effects. The problem is exacerbated by transient enhanced diffusion, in which increased diffusion is experienced when dopant implants are annealed.

Ashburn concludes: “The award of the patent for this pioneering technique is a significant milestone in overcoming this obstacle. We look forward to continuing to conduct innovative R&D projects with The University of Southampton”.

For more information, visit the Web site: www.innos.co.uk