Boron segregation and electrical properties in polycrystalline SiGeC

Previously, it has been reported that PMOS capacitors with heavily boron-doped polycrystalline SiGeC gates are less susceptible to boron penetration than those with poly Si gates [1]. Boron appears to accumulate in the poly SiGeC layers during anneals, reducing boron outdiffusion from the gate despite high boron levels in the poly SiGeC at the gate/oxide interface. In this abstract, we report clear evidence of strong boron segregation to polycrystalline SiGeC layers from poly Si, with boron concentration in poly SiGeC (Ge=25%, C=1.5%) increasing to four times that of adjacent poly Si layers. A separate experiment confirms that this result is not due to any SIMS artifacts. Electrical measurements of heavily in-situ doped single layer samples show that the conductivity of poly SiGeC is similar to poly Si and remains roughly constant with annealing at 800°C. However, in a two-layer sample where the poly SiGeC is initially lightly doped and subsequently heavily doped by diffusion by from an adjacent poly Si layer, conductivity appears lower than in poly Si.