Cobalt silicide thermal stability: from blanket thin film to submicrometerlines

The effect of lateral dimension scaling on the thermal stability of CoSi2 l ayers reacted on pre-amorphized chemical vapour deposited silicon has been demonstrated. Resistance measurements on both blanket and patterned silicid e 100 nm thick have been performed in the temperature range between 850 and 1100 degrees C, The annealing effect on the silicide linewidth and on the grain size distribution was studied by transmission electron microscopy pla n view. A strong correlation between line resistance and morphological chan ge during the high temperature annealing has been found. The thermal degrad ation activation energies in blanket and patterned CoSi2 films have been co mpared and explained. Moreover, thermal stability dependence on line width on (001) silicon has been also proved and compared to previous results on p olycrystalline substrate, (C) 1999 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All r ights reserved.