INTEGRATION OF SALICIDE PROCESS FOR DEEP-SUBMICRON CMOS TECHNOLOGY - EFFECT OF NITROGEN ARGON-AMORPHIZED IMPLANT ON SALICIDE FORMATION/

We present a Ti-SALICIDE (self aligned silicide) process incorporating an argon or nitrogen-amorphization implantation prior to silicidation to enhance the C54-TiSi2 formation for deep submicron CMOS devices. I t was found that by incorporating a high-temperature titanium depositi on at 400 degrees C together with amorphization, excellent sheet rho w as obtained for poly widths down to 0.25 mu m. The improvement seen us ing a lower temperature (approximate to 100 degrees C) deposition was relatively less. We postulate that the higher-temperature deposition e nsures that the C54 phase is nucleated before the C49 phase forms larg e grains. We also study the impact placed on maintaining the integrity of the active junctions and minimizing gate-to-source drain leakage. It was found that both argon and nitrogen result in anomalous leakage behavior, whereas arsenic was found to give excellent performance in t erms of these parameters. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights re served.