Electron-beam annealing of ion-implantation damage in integrated-circuit devices

The use of a large-diameter pulsed electron beam to anneal ion-implantation damage has been studied with application to integrated-circuit structures. The annealing of arsenic-implanted p-n junction diodes shows that properly selected exposure to an electron beam can anneal implant damage and provide nearly ideal device characteristics. Tests on MOS capacitor structures show that the electron beam itself introduces states at the Si-SiO2 interface but that these states can be easily annealed during the low-temperature metal alloy cycle. The practical utilization of the concept requires an electron beam uniform over the entire wafer area.