Improvement of the thermal stability of nickel silicide using a ruthenium interlayer deposited via remote plasma atomic layer deposition
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Hanyang University, Seoul 04763, South Korea and System LSI Manufacturing Operation Center, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd, Gyeonggi-do 17113 (Korea, Republic of)
- Department of Nano-scale Semiconductor Engineering, Hanyang University, Seoul 04763 (Korea, Republic of)
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Hanyang University, Seoul 04763 (Korea, Republic of)
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Hanyang University, Seoul 04763, South Korea and Department of Nano-scale Semiconductor Engineering, Hanyang University, Seoul 04763 (Korea, Republic of)
In this study, the effects of a thin Ru interlayer on the thermal and morphological stability of NiSi have been investigated. Ru and Ni thin films were deposited sequentially to form a Ni/Ru/Si bilayered structure, without breaking the vacuum, by remote plasma atomic layer deposition (RPALD) on a p-type Si wafer. After annealing at various temperatures, the thermal stabilities of the Ni/Ru/Si and Ni/Si structures were investigated by various analysis techniques. The results showed that the sheet resistance of the Ni/Ru/Si sample was consistently lower compared to the Ni/Si sample over the entire temperature range. Although both samples exhibited the formation of NiSi{sub 2} phases at an annealing temperature of 800 °C, as seen with glancing angle x-ray diffraction, the peaks of the Ni/Ru/Si sample were observed to have much weaker intensities than those obtained for the Ni/Si sample. Moreover, the NiSi film with a Ru interlayer exhibited a better interface and improved surface morphologies compared to the NiSi film without a Ru interlayer. These results show that the phase transformation of NiSi to NiSi{sub 2} was retarded and that the smooth NiSi/Si interface was retained due to the activation energy increment for NiSi{sub 2} nucleation that is caused by adding a Ru interlayer. Hence, it can be said that the Ru interlayer deposited by RPALD can be used to control the phase transformation and physical properties of nickel silicide phases.
- OSTI ID:
- 22592902
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology. A, Vacuum, Surfaces and Films, Vol. 34, Issue 3; Other Information: (c) 2016 American Vacuum Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0734-2101
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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