Advanced thermal processing of semiconductor materials in the millisecond range

The paper gives an overview of our recent work in the field of thermal processing of advanced semiconductor structures by millisecond flash lamp annealing (FLA). Topics covered include ultra-shallow junction (USJ) formation and heteroepitaxial growth of improved quality thin films of cubic silicon carbide (3C-SiC). The latter is a new development, which opens up promising 3C-SiC growth possibilities and may lead to wider application of FLA. The so-called FLASiC process (Flash LAmp Supported Deposition of SiC) is based on a new type of nanoscale liquid-phase epitaxy at the SiC/Si interface resulting in the formation of a thin, low-defect density seed layer of SiC onto which thicker epitaxial SiC layers can be grown.