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2.2.2 Stress Memorization

In a process using the stress memorization technique the conventional spike anneal for dopant activation is performed after the deposition of a tensile stressor capping layer [Khamankar04,Ota02,Chen04,Horstmann05]. This layer is subsequently removed before the salicide process. Even though the stressor nitride layer is removed from the final structure, the stress has been transferred from the nitride film to the channel during annealing and is memorized during re-crystallization of source/drain and the poly gate amorphized layers. Improvements of the on-current up to 15% were reported for n-channel MOSFETs using this technique [Chan05].


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 Previous: 2.2.1 Contact Etch Stop Liner Technique   Up: 2.2 Local Strain Techniques   Next: 2.2.3 Selective Epitaxial Growth Technique
E. Ungersboeck: Advanced Modelling Aspects of Modern Strained CMOS Technology