Impact of Junction Depth and Abruptness on the Activation and the Leakage Current in Germanium n${}^{+}$/p Junctions

Abstract

The phosphorous activation in Ge n${}^{+}$/p junctions is compared in terms of junction depth, by using laser spike annealing at 860°C for 400$\hat{I}¼$s. The reverse junction leakage is found to strongly depend on the abruptness of dopant profiles. A shallow and abrupt junction is shown to have lower phosphorous activation level, due to surface dose loss, and higher band-to-band tunneling (BTBT) leakage, when compared to the deep junction. Simulations were carried out to evaluate the lowest achievable OFF-state currents (I${}_{OFF}$) for Ge double-gate FETs when using such an abrupt junction. Our results indicate that a Ge body thickness smaller than 5 nm is required to suppress the BTBT leakage and meet the requirement for the high performance devices defined by the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (I${}_{OFF}$ = 10${}^{-7}$ A/$\hat{I}¼$m).

4 pages, 4 figures