Patent ID: 7670917

Claim:
A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device, comprising: forming silicon gate electrodes located over a semiconductor substrate, including forming amorphous regions in the silicon gate electrodes; forming source/drain regions adjacent each of the silicon gate electrodes; depositing an oxide layer over the silicon gate electrodes and the source/drains; depositing a nitride layer over the oxide layer; conducting a laser anneal on at least the silicon gate electrodes subsequent to depositing the nitride layer, the laser anneal being conducted at a temperature ranging from about 1100° C. to about 1350° C. for a period of time ranging from about 300 microseconds to about 2000 microseconds; removing the nitride layer following the laser anneal; and subjecting the semiconductor device to a non-laser thermal anneal subsequent to conducting the laser anneal and after removing the nitride layer, the thermal anneal being conducted at a temperature ranging from about 1000° C. to about 1100° C. for a time ranging from about 0.6 seconds to about 2.0 seconds.