Morphological instabilities of nickel and cobalt silicides on silicon

Nygren, S.; Caffin, D.; Östling, Mikael; d’Heurle, F. M.

doi:10.1016/0169-4332(91)90247-h

Cited by 35 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…After selective etching (to remove the unreacted metal), bubble formation was not observed as in the 350°C sample, indicating full consumption of metal layers. This temperature range is similar to that of Chiu et al [10] observed for c-Si, and larger than layer inversion starting at 550°C, observed by Nygren et al [7] for pure Ni on poly-Si. At temperatures above 700°C, an increase in the sheet resistance is observed mainly due to the start of silicide/poly-Si layer inversion and agglomeration.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 86%

“…With the silicide/poly-Si (polycide) structure, the mechanism is more complex owing to the additional driving force of poly-Si grain growth, making the polycide structure more vulnerable to thermal degradation than silicide/c-Si [6]. For Ni silicide films, whose metal atoms are the dominant diffusing species during silicide formation, the layer inversion on poly-Si was reported to start at 550°C [7] and has been attributed to poly-Si grain growth. The use of Ni(Pt) alloy has been shown to improve the stability of Ni(Pt)Si on Si up to 900°C by minimizing agglomeration and retarding the formation of the high resistivity NiSi 2 phase [8].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

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Thermal stability of Ni(Pt) silicide films formed on poly-Si

Dói

Teixeira

Santos

et al. 2005

Microelectronic Engineering

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 86%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Thermal stability of Ni(Pt) silicide films formed on poly-Si

Dói

Teixeira

Santos

et al. 2005

Microelectronic Engineering

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“…5 below, since the existence of such a diagram allows more precise statements to be made. A continuous migration of NiSi 1Ϫu Ge u grains, driven by a minimization of the free energy through elimination of small Si 1Ϫx Ge x grains, 13,29,30 will thus permit a continuous outdiffusion of Ge. This has an important bearing on the migration of the germanosilicide grains in relation to their atomic compositions.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…12 On polycrystalline Si ͑poly-Si͒ substrates, continuous NiSi films break up into discrete NiSi grains at 550°C for 90 min and layer inversion occurs upon further annealing at the same temperature. 13 Alloying Ni with Pt ͑Refs. 14 and 15͒ results in an appreciably increased temperature for the formation of NiSi 2 and noticeably improved morphological stability of the NiSi/poly-Si layered structure.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Morphological and phase stability of nickel–germanosilicide on Si1−xGex under thermal stress

Jarmar

Seger

Ericson

et al. 2002

Journal of Applied Physics

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Continuous and uniform Ni͑Si,Ge͒ layers are formed on polycrystalline Si and Si 0.42 Ge 0.58 substrate films at 500°C by rapid thermal processing. The germanosilicide is identified as NiSi 0.42 Ge 0.58 , i.e., with the same Si-to-Ge ratio as in the substrate. The NiSi 0.42 Ge 0.58 layer has agglomerated at 600°C. This is accompanied by a diffusion of Ge out from the germanosilicide grains and the growth of a Ge-rich SiGe region in their close vicinity. These changes cause a slight variation in the atomic composition of Ni͑Si,Ge͒ detectable for individual grains by means of energy dispersive spectroscopy. Above 600°C, substantial outdiffusion of Ge from the Ni͑Si,Ge͒ grains occurs concurrently with the migration of the grains into the substrate film away from the surface area leaving a Ge-rich SiGe region behind. These observations can be understood with reference to calculated Ni-Si-Ge ternary phase diagrams with and without the inclusion of NiSi 2 . When Ge is present, the Ni-based self-aligned silicide process presents a robust technique with respect to device applications.

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“…Note that the formation of NiSi 2 silicide phase is to be expected here since NiSi 2 is known to nucleate abruptly and instantaneously at a temperature of 750 C on Si(100) substrates. 38) Overall, the microstructural observations presented above show that metal-rich Ni 2 Si, which is an unstable phase with high resistivity, forms at the Ni/Si interface of the thin film system at an annealing temperature of 200 C. At higher annealing temperatures, the Ni 2 Si phase presented at the Ni/ Si interface is replaced by either monosilicide NiSi (300 C and 500 C) or disilicide NiSi 2 (800 C). These nickel silicide phases at the Ni/Si interface of the thin film system is formed by solid phase diffusion reaction during annealing process.…”

mentioning

confidence: 89%