TRANSISTOR WITH EMBEDDED STRAIN-INDUCING MATERIAL FORMED IN CAVITIES BASED ON AN AMORPHIZATION PROCESS AND A HEAT TREATMENT

摘要

When forming cavities in active regions of semiconductor devices in order to incorporate a strain-inducing semiconductor material, an improved shape of the cavities may be achieved by using an amorphization process and a heat treatment so as to selectively modify the etch behavior of exposed portions of the active regions and to adjust the shape of the amorphous regions. In this manner, the basic configuration of the cavities may be adjusted with a high degree of flexibility. Consequently, the efficiency of the strain-inducing technique may be improved.

主权项

1. A method, comprising:
forming a gate electrode structure of a transistor above an active region comprising a crystalline semiconductor base material; forming amorphous regions in said active region adjacent to said gate electrode structure; performing a heat treatment so that said amorphous regions are partially re-crystallized; etching the amorphous regions selective to the crystalline semiconductor base material after said heat treatment to form cavities in said active region; and forming a strain-inducing semiconductor material in said cavities to induce strain in the channel region of said transistor.