New rapid thermal annealing for GaAs digital integrated circuits

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Abstract
A new rapid thermal annealing (RTA) method that uses GaAs guard rings has been developed. A new temperature monitoring method is also described. Generations of slip lines on 2-in.-diam GaAs wafers annealed in different kinds of RTA arrangements were investigated by x-ray transmission topography. The use of three GaAs guard rings has been found to be very effective in reducing slip lines. The temperature dependence of activation and uniformity of annealing characteristics for a selective Si-implanted 2-in.-diam GaAs wafer at 100 keV with a dose of 5×1012 cm−2 were evaluated by drain saturation current (Idss) distribution of gateless field-effect transistors (FETs) over the wafer. The best uniformity, as well as the highest activation, was obtained by RTA at 920 °C for 15 s. The activation energy of 1.47 eV for the average value of Idss (∼(Idss)) was obtained. By using this RTA method, GaAs digital integrated circuits (ICs), dual-modulus prescalers, have been successfully fabricated with high yield for the first time. This RTA method is very promising for GaAs digital IC processing.