Citation

Ok YW, Choi CJ, Maeng JT, Seong TY. J. Electron. Mater. 2004; 33(8): 916-922.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2004, Holtzbrinck Springer-Nature)

DOI

10.1007/s11664-004-0221-8

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The effect of argon plasma treatment on the structural and electrical properties of Ni suicides has been investigated. Electron-beam-evaporated Ni films on Si substrates are Ar plasma-treated by an inductively coupled plasma (ICP) reactor. For silicidation reactions, all the samples with and without the Ar plasma treatment are rapid-thermal annealed (RTA) at temperatures of 500-750°C in a nitrogen ambient. It is shown that the Ar plasma-treated samples produce better electrical and structural properties across the whole temperature range as compared with the untreated samples. It is further shown that the Ar plasma-treated samples contain nitrogen, which plays an important role in improving the morphological stability and the electrical properties of the suicide films.

Language: en

Keywords

Annealing; Scanning electron microscopy; Oxidation; Evaporation; Nickel; Silicidation; Nitrogen; Electric properties; Argon; Electron beams; Argon plasma; Inductively coupled plasma; Ni native oxide; Ni-silicides