Electrically active defects in surface pre-amorphized Si under rapid thermal anneal and their removal by concurrent titanium silicidation

The interstitial-type nature of electrically active defects observed in sur face pre-amorphized and subsequently annealed p-type Si is established by c omparing the thermal evolution of electrically active defects for rapid the rmal anneals (RTA) with/without titanium films. Detailed analyses of the de ep level transient spectroscopy (DLTS) and transmission electron microscopy results suggest that some of these defects are small interstitial clusters . The results of this study also suggest that the release of self-interstit ials from EOR extended defects and their subsequent diffusion into bulk are involved in the formation of the hole trap levels observed after high temp erature RTA anneals. The observation of the complete elimination of the imp lantation-induced electrically active defects by concurrent RTA Ti-silicida tion should be of interest to silicon microelectronic technology since it d emonstrates the possibility of eliminating implantation induced defects usi ng low thermal budget. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0003-6951( 99)04250-3].