High activation of Sb during solid-phase epitaxy and deactivation during subsequent thermal process

Ion-implanted Sb is activated with higher concentrations than at thermal equilibrium during solid phase epitaxy, this Sb being deactivated at thermal equilibrium during the subsequent thermal process. It seems that Sb is trapped at the lattice sites at values above solid solubility during solid phase epitaxy and the diffusion of dopants degrades the resistance, as dopants begin to aggregate and deactivate. We showed that the onset of the increase in resistance is related to the diffusion length of Sb. By using a thermal process before deactivation, we could obtain shallow junctions with low resistance.