The benefits of fluorine in pnp polysilicon emitter bipolar transistors

Abstract

BF/sub 2/ implantation into polysilicon and its subsequent rapid thermal diffusion into single crystal silicon is commonly used for the fabrication of pnp polysilicon emitter bipolar transistors. In this paper the effect of the fluorine, which is introduced into the polysilicon during the BF/sub 2/ implant, is investigated. Pnp polysilicon emitter bipolar transistors are fabricated in which the boron and fluorine are implanted separately, with the fluorine only going into one half of each wafer. Electrical results show that fluorine has two interrelated effects. In devices given a low thermal budget emitter drive-in, a drop in base current by a factor of approximately 3.2 is observed when the fluorine is present, together with an improvement in the ideality of the base characteristics. This is explained by the passivation of trapping states at the polysilicon/silicon interface by the fluorine. In contrast, in devices-given a higher thermal budget emitter drive-in, an increase in base current by a factor of approximately 2.5 is observed, when fluorine is present. This is explained by the action of the fluorine in accelerating the breakup of the interfacial layer. A model is proposed to explain this behavior.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>