Silicon and Silicon Carbide Recrystallization by Laser Annealing: A Review

Abstract

Modifying material properties within a specific spatial region is a pivotal stage in the fabrication of microelectronic devices. Laser annealing emerges as a compelling technology, offering precise control over the crystalline structure of semiconductor materials and facilitating the activation of doping ions in localized regions. This obviates the necessity for annealing the entire wafer or device. The objective of this review is to comprehensively investigate laser annealing processes specifically targeting the crystallization of amorphous silicon (Si) and silicon carbide (SiC) samples. Silicon finds extensive use in diverse applications, including microelectronics and solar cells, while SiC serves as a crucial material for developing components designed to operate in challenging environments or high-power integrated devices. The review commences with an exploration of the underlying theory and fundamentals of laser annealing techniques. It then delves into an analysis of the most pertinent studies focused on the crystallization of these two semiconductor materials.

High-Performance Organic Field-Effect Transistors of Liquid Crystalline Organic Semiconductor by Laser Mapping Annealing

“…Laser annealing, in particular, is a very special kind of heat treatment frequently used for semiconductor devices, showing a quite different way to traditional thermal annealing. It can effectively remove lattice defects caused by ion implantation [ 25 , 26 , 27 ]. Additionally, laser annealing is a type of localized annealing that has been widely studied in device preparation because of its advantages, such as fast annealing speed, low heat accumulation, selectable annealing region, localized thermal effect, and good spatial resolution [ 28 , 29 ].…”