Millisecond annealing for advanced device fabrications

Evolution of CMOS technology has created new opportunities for millisecond annealing beyond the traditional dopant activation and junction formation. Strain enhancement, gate stack property modifications, silicide formation, and contact interface engineering are a few examples. In this paper, we review various applications of millisecond annealing for advanced logic device fabrications. Extendibility to new materials, opportunities and challenges for DRAM applications are also discussed.