Depth profile characterization of ultra shallow junction implants

A need for analysis techniques, complementary to secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS), for depth profiling dopants in silicon for ultra shallow junction (USJ) applications in CMOS technologies has recently emerged following the difficulties SIMS is facing there. Grazing incidence X-ray fluorescence (GIXRF) analysis in the soft X-ray range is a high-potential tool for this purpose. It provides excellent conditions for the excitation of the B-K and the As-L (iii,ii) shells. The X-ray standing wave (XSW) field associated with GIXRF on flat samples is used here as a tunable sensor to obtain information about the implantation profile because the in-depth changes of the XSW intensity are dependent on the angle of incidence. This technique is very sensitive to near-surface layers and is therefore well suited for the analysis of USJ distributions. Si wafers implanted with either arsenic or boron at different fluences and implantation energies were used to compare SIMS with synchrotron radiation-induced GIXRF analysis. GIXRF measurements were carried out at the laboratory of the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) at the electron storage ring BESSY II using monochromatized undulator radiation of well-known radiant power and spectral purity. The use of an absolutely calibrated energy-dispersive detector for the acquisition of the B-K alpha and As-L alpha fluorescence radiation enabled the absolute determination of the total retained dose. The concentration profile was obtained by ab initio calculation and comparison with the angular measurements of the X-ray fluorescence.