Patent ID: 8877596

Claim:
A method, comprising: forming a hardmask comprising at least a first material over one or more gate structures and its associated drain and source regions thereof; forming a photoresist over the hardmask; forming an opening in the photoresist over at least one of the gate structures, wherein the opening extends over the at least one of the gate structures and its associated drain and source regions thereof; stripping all of the first material of the hardmask that is exposed in the opening and which is over the at least one of the gate structures and its associated drain and source regions thereof; removing the photoresist; and providing an asymmetric halo implant on a side of the at least one of the gate structures, wherein: the first material is an oxide; the hardmask further comprises a second material, which is a nitride; the first material is located over the second material; the stripping includes stripping all of the oxide exposed in the opening in order to expose the nitride over the at least one of the gate structures and its associated drain and source regions thereof; and the nitride is formed with a thickness of about 25 nm to 100 nm and the oxide is formed with a thickness of about 300 Å to 1000 Å such that an incident angle of the asymmetric halo implant at less than 40° is configured to provide the asymmetric halo implant only on the drain side of the at least one of the gate structures through the exposed nitride.