STABILITY OF INTERFACES IN GOLD-SILICON SYSTEM REGARDING EQUILIBRIUM SEGREGATION

The Si/Au system has been intensively studied for its application in t he field of microelectronics. This paper presents results obtained on segregation and interaction phenomena in such a system for a range of temperature below the eutectic (363 degrees C). Investigations were pe rformed using two complementary techniques: Auger Electron Spectroscop y (AES) and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM). The importance of the microstructure on the segregation phenomenon is shown. Indeed, the driving force of the gold/poly-silicon system evolution is silicon re crystallization followed by superficial silicon segregation on silicon -gold mixture even at very: low temperatures.