Poly electrode
The poly-Si/SiON route remains the main vehicle to support most of the silicide (see section Silicides), strain (see section Channel engineering) and ultra shallow junction (USJ) (see section Ultra-shallow junctions) work and is used as the reference transistor. It is developed and maintained by IMEC's platform team (see section CMOS platform process).
The dynamic random access memory (DRAM) route `D40' is derived directly from this route by tuning the source and drain (S/D) formation to sustain the DRAM thermal budget without electrical degradation (performance, short channel effects). The S/D can be modified both in the junction formation and in the silicide formation (see section Silicides). In both cases the addition of C helps stabilizing the S/D junctions.