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Agglomeration-Free Nanoscale Cobalt Silicide Film Formation Via Substrate Preamorphization

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 February 2011

S. Pramanick
Affiliation:
Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695-7916
B.K. Patnaik
Affiliation:
Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695-7916
G. A. Rozgonyi
Affiliation:
Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695-7916
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Abstract

We have used preamorphization of silicon substrates as a process modification to suppress agglomeration during cobalt disilicide film formation. Planar, continuous and low resistivity (<21 μΩ-cm) silicide films less than 35 nm thick have been produced both on single crystal silicon and polysilicon. Nanoscale(<35 nm) silicide films are more susceptible to islanding phenomena since agglomeration is dependent onthe ratio of grain size to film thickness. Preamorphization prior to silicidation favorsa large increase in silicide nucleation rate, as well as reduction in critical nuclei size, both of which aid the formation of silicide with small grains. The resulting small grain silicides enable nanoscale films to remain below the critical grain size to thickness ratio for which thin films become morphologically unstable. An interphase void band which occurs between CoSi and CoSi2 layers, acts as a convenient diffusion marker and aids interpretation of the complex stability issues. Preamorphization prior to silicidation was also extended to heavily doped substrates to study the applicability of this approach for junctions and gate contacts. Silicidation of amorphized heavily boron doped substrates produces non uniform layers due to the collision of the advancing silicidation and SPE interfaces. A comparision of concurrent processing, i.e. simulatneous dopant activation and silicide formation, with conventional silicidation of Si+ preamorphized heavily doped(B) substrates is also presented.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1993

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References

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