Advanced process simulation - laser and flash annealing

Abstract

Summary form only given. Continuing a trend that began with RTA, anneals continue to shrink in time and increase in temperature. The latest developments are with either flash lamp anneals in the millisecond regime or laser anneals which can be as short as nanoseconds. From a modeling perspective, there are three key challenges in accomplishing of accurately modeling these anneal cycles. First, whenever the substrate is used as a heat sink, the spatial variation of temperature is important. Most process simulators do not allow for this. This paper have addressed this and it has been fixed in FLOOPS over the last two years. This paper discuss techniques employed to minimize computational overhead in doing this. Second, the simulator must solve the heat flow equation to help generate the spatial and temporal variation of temperature. FLOOPS' scripting language is well suited to this task, and built preliminary models that help predict the onset of melting, for example. Finally, these models need to be calibrated. Can equilibrium models of heat transport be used at this time and length scale? How critical is carrier transport to the heat removal? Preliminary experimental and simulation results are presented from this regime that indicate where the pressing problems exist.