electrical, structural and morphological properties of ni silicide films formed in ni(pt 4at.% )/si(100) and ni0.6si0.4(pt4at.% )/si(100) structures at various annealing temperatures ranging from 200 to 1000 oc were studied. the ni(pt) and ni0.6si0.4(pt) films with thickness of 15 and 25 nm were deposited by rf magnetron co-sputtering method, respectively.  the annealing process of the structur...

Three-dimensional atom-probe tomography was utilized to study the distribution of M (M = Pt or Pd) after silicidation of a solidsolution Ni0.95M0.05 thin-film on Si(100). Both Pt and Pd segregate at the (Ni1-xMx)Si/Si(100) heterophase interface and may be responsible for the increased resistance of (Ni1-xMx)Si to agglomeration at elevated temperatures. Direct evidence of Pt short-circuit diffus...

In this paper, we review some of the key challenges associated with the Ni silicidation process in the most recent CMOS technologies. The introduction of new materials (e.g. SiGe), and of non-planar architectures bring some important changes that require fundamental investigation from a material engineering perspective. Following a discussion of the device architecture and silicide evolution th...

We characterize composition and structure of ultrathin nickel silicide during formation from 3 nm Ni films on Si(1 0 0) using in-situ high-resolution ion scattering transmission electron microscopy. show the transition to occur in discrete steps, which an intermediate phase is observed within a narrow range temperature 230 °C 290 °C. The film this found be 50% Ni:50% Si, without evidence for lo...

This paper presents a low cost process for fabrication of high efficiency silicon-based solar cells from front side ARC patterning through contact line metallization. This process utilizes a screen printable etch resist to define the contact pattern and a wet etching solution to remove the exposed ARC layer. The metallization stack for the contact line pattern consists of a nickel silicide ohmi...

The formation and thermal stability of nickel germanide on germanium substrate were examined by both electrical and physical characterization methods. Low resistivity (14 m cm) mono-nickel–germanide was formed at a low temperature of 400 C on Ge substrate. The sheet resistance of nickel germanide changed with the germanide formation temperatures and had a similar characteristic as nickel silici...

We investigated the temporal evolution of nickel-silicide phase-formation and the simultaneous redistribution of platinum during silicidation of a 10 nm thick Ni0.95Pt0.05 film on a Si(100) substrate. Grazing incidence x-ray diffraction (GIXRD) and atom-probe tomography (APT) measurements were performed on as-deposited films and after rapid thermal annealing (RTA) at 320 or 420 C for different ...

Nickel silicide (NiSi) nanowires with different linewidth (from 1000 to 32 nm) are formed in pre-patterned SiO2 trenches on a silicon substrate. SiO2 trenches are milled by focused ion beam (FIB) etching, and an electrical endpoint detection technique is used to control the FIB milling depth to just reveal the silicon surface. The formation is based on Ni thin film deposition and the subsequent...

A review of the formation processes for nickel silicide is given to assess the limitations of using the silicide for sub-65 nanometer technologies. Various aspects attributed to the NiSi formation process are described and addressed by using a two-step process sequence for annealing. The focus of this study was to develop a process sequence with three principal steps to achieve low resistivity ...

Nickel silicides were formed on Si (100) substrates and CVD grown Si0.9Ge0.1/Si layers by low thermal budget annealing of evaporated Ni films to evaluate their utility for ultra shallow junctions. The phase formation and microstructure of silicides formed using conventional furnace and rapid thermal annealing were studied by x-ray diffraction, Rutherford backscattering (RBS), x-ray photoelectro...