Stress Dependence of Thermal Stability of Nickel Silicide for Nano MOSFETs

The thermal stability of nickel silicide with compressively and tensilely stressed nitride capping layer has been investigated in this study. The Ni (10 nm) and Ni/Co/TiN (7/3/25 nm) structures were deposited on the p-type Si substrate. The stressed capping layer was deposited using plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) after silicide formation by one-step rapid thermal process (RTP) at $500^{\circ}C$ for 30 sec. It was found that the thermal stability of nickel silicide depends on the stress induced by the nitride capping layer. In the case of Ni (10 nm) structure, the high compressive sample shows the best thermal stability, whereas in the case of Ni/Co/TiN (7/3/25 nm) structure, the high compressive sample shows the worst thermal stability.