MATERIAL ASPECTS OF NICKEL SILICIDE FOR ULSI APPLICATIONS

Nickel silicide is being considered as a candidate for applications in deep sub-micron integrated circuits. In this paper, some pertinent el ectrical and material properties are studied systematically. The effec ts of substrate doping on the silicide sheet resistance are examined f or both single crystal and poly-silicon substrates. The thermal stabil ity of the silicide films and the effects of dopants are discussed. Pa rticular attention is paid to these properties as the silicide feature size is reduced towards the 0.1 mu m range, The influence of feature size on the morphology and topography of the silicide is also presente d. (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.