Avoidance of substrate damage upon laser recrystallization of a SOI layer

The substrate damage (SD) induced by laser recrystallization of a polysilicon layer insulated from a Si substrate by a SiO2 layer is discussed. The SD can be detected by simple methods which offer the advantage of rapidly available results. Measures to prevent substrate damage are presented and discussed. Their effectiveness is proved by the fact that after argon laser recrystallization of a SOI layer substrate, NMOS devices showed no change in their characteristics.