Physical Bases of Work of Photo Receivers Based on Silicides

Abstract

The creation of high-quality high-speed semiconductor devices and integrated circuits requires the introduction of new materials into the technology for their manufacture. The most promising of them are silicides-silicon compounds with more electropositive elements. These compounds can be obtained as a result of a solid phase reaction at a temperature in the range of about one to half the melting point of this metal on an absolute scale. Silicides have a high conductivity of a metallic nature, high temperature stability, and surpass in these properties any heavily doped semiconductor layer. The use of polysilicon as a material for gates and connecting lines providing a layer resistance of 20 Ohms/□ allowed us to reduce the minimum dimensions of the elements of devices to 25 microns. Methods were proposed for the formation of silicide films, as well as technological processes necessary for the manufacture of semiconductor devices and microcircuits with their application, which allowed us to start developing devices with a minimum element size of 1 µm and to begin their industrial production. The stable and reliable characteristics of platinum-silicon silicide (PtSi-Si) contacts have led to the widespread use of silicides as materials for ohmic contacts, gates in metal-oxide-semiconductor (MIS)-transistors, materials for storing optical information, photodetectors operating in IR-spectral regions, etc. The Si-2p band has an asymmetric shape; the structure of valence states differs from metallic ones.