Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Toru Nishiwaki

Shin Hashimoto

Kyoko Egashira

Takenobu Kishida

Tomoya Tanaka

Yoshifumi Hata

Yoshinori Takamori

After distributing a nonmetal element in a region in the vicinity of a surface portion of a semiconductor layer, a metal film is deposited on the semiconductor layer. Next, a semiconductor-metal compound layer is epitaxially grown in the surface portion of the semiconductor layer by causing a reaction between an element included in the semiconductor layer and a metal included in the metal film through annealing carried out on the metal film.

Method for fabricating semiconductor device

Wafers, each including an MOS semiconductor component thereon, are introduced one by one into a single-wafer heat treatment system. First, hydrogen is introduced into the system and the wafer is heated up to a predetermined temperature in Step,. Next, while the wafer temperature is kept constant at the predetermined temperature, the hydrogen sintering process is performed in Step,. Then, the wafer is cooled down to another predetermined temperature or less within the system in Step,. Finally, the wafer is taken out in Step,. The time taken to perform a single cycle of the sintering process may be within three minutes. Accordingly, compared to a conventional process using a diffusion furnace, the throughput can be increased and the temperature response and uniformity of the wafer can also be improved. By taking the wafer out of the system after sintering and then cooling down it once, the damage caused in MOS interface states, for example, by a previous process step can be repaired in a short time.

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Toyama, Japan

Toru Nishiwaki