Micro-RBS study of nickel silicide formation

Two MeV He+ microbeam-Rutherford backscattering (W-RBS) is used to obtain i nformation on silicide formation in patterned nickel silicide samples under different annealing conditions. It is important to characterize silicide f ormation processes in such laterally non-homogenous samples in order to und erstand resistivity variations that are observed when metal oxide silicon f ield effect transistor (MOSFET) gate lengths are reduced, and when silicida tion temperatures are changed. The patterned samples investigated consist o f an array of square pads (70 x 70 mum(2)) of the structure Ni(Pt)Si-x/Poly -Si (2000 Angstrom)/SiO2 (2500 Angstrom)/Si and narrow lines of 100 mum len gth and linewidths of 5 and 2 mum. mu -RBS (similar to5 mum(2) beam spot) w as used to obtain the thickness and stoichiometry of the silicide films for the square pads. The beam was focused to submicron dimensions for the scan s over the narrow lines. mu -RBS results for the different silicide structu res are presented and correlated with micro-Raman data. (C) 2001 Elsevier S cience B.V. All rights reserved.