Direct Measurement of Beam Angle in a High Current Ion Implanter

We report the first device results from a new method of direct measurement and real-time control of the average angle of an ion beam in a high current ion implanter. The angle detector consists of an array of high aspect ratio slots that are mounted directly on the same process disk containing the wafers. Beam profiling is achieved by measuring the ion current through the slots versus angle as the disk is rotated perpendicular to the slots. From this profile we determine an angle offset relative to the nominal implant angle. This offset may be a result of beam steering, mechanical positioning uncertainty, or both. The disk is then reoriented if necessary to ensure that the desired beam angle with respect to the wafer is achieved. We implanted the NMOS and PMOS source/drain extension implants for several dozen lots of 90nm and 120nm NMOS and PMOS devices. We showed tightened distributions of both transistor drive currents and asymmetry of drive currents under reverse biasing for 90nm and 120nm devices manufactured on 300mm wafers after the installation of the angle detection hardware. We also observed a tightening of the yield distribution for the 120nm devices.