Herein, the influence of silicon surface modification via Si-C(n)H(2n+1) (n=10,12,16,22) monolayer-based devices on p-type 100 and n-type 100 silicon is studied by forming MIS (metal-insulator-semiconductor) diodes using a mercury probe. From current density-voltage (J-V) and capacitance-voltage (C-V) measurements, the relevant parameters describing the electrical behavior of these diodes are derived, such as the diode ideality factor, the effective barrier height, the flatband voltage, the barrier height, the monolayer dielectric constant, the tunneling attenuation factor, and the fixed charge density (Nf). It is shown that the J-V behavior of our MIS structures could be precisely tuned via the monolayer thickness. The use of n-type silicon resulted in lower diode ideality factors as compared to p-type silicon. A similar flatband voltage, independent of monolayer thickness, was found, indicating similar properties for all silicon-monolayer interfaces. An exception was the C10-based monolayer device on p-type silicon. Furthermore, low values of N(f) were found for monolayers on p-type silicon (approximately 6 x 10(11) cm(-2)). These results suggest that Si--C linked monolayers on flat silicon may be a viable material for future electronic devices.

The electrochemical behavior of Si--C linked organic monolayers is studied in electrolyte-insulator-Si devices, under conditions normally encountered in potentiometric biosensors, to gain fundamental knowledge on the behavior of such Si electrodes under practical conditions. This is done via titration experiments, Mott-Schottky data analysis, and data fitting using a site-binding model. The results are compared with those of native SiO(2) layers and native SiO(2) layers modified with hexamethyldisilazane. All samples display pH sensitivity. The number of Si--OH groups on the alkylated samples is calculated to be less than 0.7 % of that of a pure SiO(2) insulator, which still causes a pH sensitivity of approximately 25 mV per pH unit in the pH range: 4-7. The alkylated samples hardly suffer from response changes during up- and down-going titrations, which indicates that very little oxide is additionally formed during the measurements. The pK(a) values of all samples with monolayers (4.0-4.4) are lower than that of native SiO(2) (6.0). The long-term drift (of approximately 1 mV h(-1)) is moderate. The results indicate that biosensors composed of alkylated Si substrates are feasible if a cross-sensitivity towards pH in the sensor signal is taken into account.

No preference for poster or oral presentation Some process steps during wafer processing demand a carefully applied temperature budget. Novel test structures are presented for monitoring and determining this thermal budget during processing (such as sputtering or etching). Our system is based on well-defined silicidation reactions, simple to read out and enables an easy integration into existing lay-outs.

In this work, the kinetics of platinum silicide formation for thin Pt films (50 nm) on monocrystalline ⟨100⟩ silicon is investigated via in situ resistance measurements under isothermal (197–275 °C) conditions. For Pt2Si diffusion limited growth was observed. For PtSi formation, however, no linear relation between silicide thickness and √t was found. PtSi growth over time could be described using the Avrami relation rendering Avrami exponent n=1.4±0.1. Additionally, an effective activation energy EA=1.7±0.1 eV was derived using the Avrami k values. The findings are important for obtaining well defined silicide films and silicide-to-silicon contacts.

We present a novel method for determining the temperature budget of the process side of silicon substrates and chips, based on well-known silicide formation reactions of metal-Si systems and (four-point probe) resistance measurements. In this paper, we focus on the Pd-Si system that is most temperature sensitive in the range from 100 °C to 200 °C. A variety of test structures is introduced to exploit the specific properties of the diffusion-limited reaction between Pd and Si. Among others, this resulted in gap-based layouts that facilitate an extension of the temperature range to 350 °C. Designs and measurement results are presented, indicating the practicality and the robustness of the proposed technique.