Dopant Activation is the process of obtaining the desired electronic contribution from impurity species

Dopant

A dopant, also called a doping agent, is a trace impurity element that is inserted into a substance in order to alter the electrical properties or the optical properties of the substance. In the case of crystalline substances, the atoms of the dopant very commonly take the place of elements that...

 in a semiconductor

Semiconductor

A semiconductor is a material with electrical conductivity due to electron flow intermediate in magnitude between that of a conductor and an insulator. This means a conductivity roughly in the range of 103 to 10−8 siemens per centimeter...

 host. The term is often restricted to the application of thermal energy following the ion implantation of dopants. In the most common industrial example, rapid thermal processing

Rapid thermal processing

Rapid Thermal Processing refers to a semiconductor manufacturing process which heats silicon wafers to high temperatures on a timescale of several seconds or less. During cooling, however, wafer temperatures must be brought down slowly so they do not break due to thermal shock...

 is applied to silicon following the ion implantation of dopants such as phosphorus, arsenic and boron. Vacancies generated at elevated temperature (1200°C) facilitate the movement of these species from interstitial

Crystallographic defect

Crystalline solids exhibit a periodic crystal structure. The positions of atoms or molecules occur on repeating fixed distances, determined by the unit cell parameters. However, the arrangement of atom or molecules in most crystalline materials is not perfect...

 to substitutional

Crystallographic defect

Crystalline solids exhibit a periodic crystal structure. The positions of atoms or molecules occur on repeating fixed distances, determined by the unit cell parameters. However, the arrangement of atom or molecules in most crystalline materials is not perfect...

 lattice sites while amorphization

Amorphous solid

In condensed matter physics, an amorphous or non-crystalline solid is a solid that lacks the long-range order characteristic of a crystal....

 damage from the implantation process recrystallizes

Recrystallization

Recrystallization may refer to:*Recrystallization *Recrystallization *Recrystallization...

. A relatively rapid process, peak temperature is often maintained for less than one second to minimize unwanted chemical diffusion

Diffusion

Molecular diffusion, often called simply diffusion, is the thermal motion of all particles at temperatures above absolute zero. The rate of this movement is a function of temperature, viscosity of the fluid and the size of the particles...

.