IMPLICATIONS OF THE SOLID-PHASE AMORPHOUS TO CRYSTALLINE TRANSFORMATION FOR SHALLOW-JUNCTION PROCESSING.

Recent fundamental investigations of the solid-phase amorphous to crystalline transformation in silicon are reviewed. Three modes of inducing solid-phase regrowth are discussed, namely furnace processing, rapid-thermal processing and ion-beam processing. Topics emphasized include: extended defect states of the material; incubation solid-phase regrowth; continuous solid-phase regrowth; and the constraints which extended-defect annealling and dopant-profile broadening impose on obtaining n** plus and p** plus shallow junctions by a technology which is based on a preamorphization, dopant implant and solid-phase expitaxial regrowth sequence.