Effects of nitrogen implantation in silicon for shallow p+-n junction formation

This letter will present the effects of nitrogen implantation on shallow p+-n junction formation in silicon. The p+-n junctions fabricated at different implantation conditions and heat budgets were characterized by secondary ion mass spectroscopy, current–voltage and capacitance–voltage measurements, and analyzed by transport of ions in matter simulation. The capacitance–voltage measurements of nitrogen implanted samples revealed the one-sided abrupt junction properties, and the current–voltage measurements indicated the shallow junction characteristics due to boron diffusion suppression by nitrogen. The activation energy is about 0.39 eV for temperatures below 80 °C, and its dominant leakage mechanism is phonon-assisted tunneling. At a reverse bias of −3 V, the leakage current density was 5.217×10−8 A/cm2 at −3 V, which is comparable to that of a conventional p+-n junction.