FIXING HIDDEN PROBLEMS WITH THERMAL BUDGET

Kinetic effects in rapid thermal processing (RTP) are often assessed u sing the concept of thermal budget. Although thermal budget can be def ined in several ways, the basic premise asserts that budget minimizati on should minimize dopant diffusion and interface degradation. The pre sent work highlights serious shortcomings with this principle. Experim ents show that budget minimization, according to some definitions, can actually worsen diffusion problems rather than mitigate them. We pres ent a straightforward framework for improving the results through comp arison of activation energies of the desired and undesired phenomena. This framework provides strong kinetic arguments for continued develop ment of rapid isothermal processing and small batch fast ramp methods.