• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.14 no.8
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• pp.573-578
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• 2004

Newly developed silicide materials for ULSI should have the appropriate electrical property of low resistant as well as process compatibility in conventional CMOS process. We prepared $NiCoSi_x$ silicides from 15 nm-Co/15 nm-Ni/Si structure and performed contact dry etch process to confirm the dry etch stability and compatibility of $NiCoSi_x$ layers. We dry etched the photoresist/SiO/silicide/silicon patterns with $CF_4\;and\;CHF_3$ gases with varying powers from 100 to 200 W, and pressures from 45 to 65 mTorr, respectively. Polysilicon and silicon active layers without silicide were etched $0\sim316{\AA}$ during over etch time of 3min, while silicon layers with proposed $NiCoSi_x$ silicide were not etched and showed stable surfaces. Our result implies that new $NiCoSi_x$ silicides may replace the conventional silicides due to contact etch process compatibility.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SD
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• v.40 no.12
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• pp.1-9
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• 2003

In this paper, a novel Ni silicide technology with Cobalt interlayer and Titanium Nitride(TiN) capping layer for sub 100 nm CMOS technologies is presented, and the device parameters are characterized. The thermal stability of hi silicide is improved a lot by applying co-interlayer at Ni/Si interface. TiN capping layer is also applied to prevent the abnormal oxidation of NiSi and to provide a smooth silicidc interface. The proposed NiSi structure showed almost same electrical properties such as little variation of sheet resistance, leakage current and drive current even after the post silicidation furnace annealing at $700^{\circ}C$ for 30 min. Therefore, it is confirmed that high thermal robust Ni silicide for the nano CMOS device is achieved by newly proposed Co/Ni/TiN structure.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 2003.07b
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• pp.1069-1072
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• 2003

Germane-sillicide phase formation on S $i_{0.25}$G $e_{0.75}$ with Ni 100$\square$, Co 10$\square$/Ni 100$\square$ and Ni 50$\square$/Co 10$\square$/Ni 50$\square$ layer was studied by sheet resistance and Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy(FESEM). Thermal stability of nickel germane-silicide is found to be improved by sputtering Ni/Co/Ni on the SiGe. After annealing at 600, 650, $700^{\circ}C$, 30min., the nickel germane-silicide formed by Ni 50$\square$/Co 10$\square$/Ni 50$\square$ layer achieved a sheet resistance less than 17ohms/sq.(almost the same to the value before furnace annealing for 30min.) , while the process of the other two ways result in high sheet resistance and even sheet resistance fail due to Ge segregation.ion.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2007.06a
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• pp.27-28
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• 2007

In this paper, Ni-Co alloy was used for improvement of thermal stability of Ni silicide. The proposed Ni/Ni-Co structure exhibited wide temperature window of rapid thermal process. Sheet resistance as well as cross-sectional profile showed stable characteristics in spite of high temperature annealing up to $700^{\circ}C$ for 30min. Therefore, the proposed Ni/Ni-Co structure is highly promising for highly thermal immune Ni silicide for nano-scale CMOSFET technology.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.08a
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• pp.219-219
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• 2010

Silicides have been commonly used in the Si technology due to the compatibility with Si. Recently the silicide has been applied in solar cells [1] and nanoscale interconnects [2]. The modulation of Ni silicide phase is an important issue to satisfy the needs. The excellent electric-conductive nickel monosilicide (NiSi) nanowire has proven the low resistive nanoscale interconnects. Otherwise the Ni disilicide (NiSi2) provides a template to grow a crystalline Si film above it by the little lattice mismatch of 0.4% between Si and NiSi2. We present the formation of Ni silicide phases performed by the single deposition and the co-deposition methods. The co-deposition of Ni and Si provides a stable Ni silicide phase at a reduced processing temperature comparing to the single deposition method. It also discusses the Schottky contact formation between the Ni silicide and the grown crystalline Si film for the solar cell application.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.17 no.11
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• pp.1149-1155
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• 2004

In this paper, novel methods for improvement of thermal stability of Ni-germano Silicide were proposed for nano CMOS applications. It was shown that there happened agglomeration and abnormal oxidation in case of Ni-germano Silicide using Ni only structure. Therefore, 4 kinds of tri-layer structure, such as, Ti/Ni/TiN, Ni/Ti/TiN, Co/Ni/TiN and Ni/Co/TiN were proposed utilizing Co and Ti interlayer to improve thermal stability of Ni-germano Silicide. Ti/Ni/TiN structure showed the best improvement of thermal stability and suppression of abnormal oxidation although all kinds of structures showed improvement of sheet resistance. That is, Ti/Ni/TiN structure showed only 11 ohm/sq. in spite of 600 $^{\circ}C$, 30 min post silicidation annealing while Ni-only structure show 42 ohm/sq. Therefore, Ti/Ni/TiN structure is highly promising for nano-scale CMOS technology.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.615-620
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• 2008

We fabriacted thermal evaporated $10nm-Ni_{1-x}Co_x$(x=0.2, 0.6, and 0.7) films on 70 nm-thick polysilicon substrate with $0.5{\mu}m$ line width. NiCo composite silicide layers were formed by rapid thermal annealing (RTA) at the temperatures of $700^{\circ}C$ and $1000^{\circ}C$. Then, we checked the microstructure evaluation of silicide patterns. A FIB (focused ion beam) was used to micro-mill the interconnect patterns with low energy condition (30kV-10pA-2 sec). We investigated the possibility of selective removal of silicide layers. It was possible to remove low resistance silicide layer selectively with the given FIB condition for our proposed NiCo composite silicides. However, the silicides formed from $Ni_{40}Co_{60}$ and $Ni_{30}Co_{70}$ composition showed void defects in interconnect patterns. Those void defects hinder the selective milling for the NiCo composite silicides.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.18-22
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• 2008

In this paper, the Ni-Co alloy was used for thermal stability estimation comparison with Ni structure. The proposed Ni/Ni-Co structure exhibited wider range of rapid thermal process windows, lower sheet resistance in spite of high temperature annealing up to $700^{\circ}C$ for 30 min, more uniform interface via FE-SEM analysis, NiSi phase peak. Therefore, The proposed Ni/Ni-Co structure is highly promising for highly thermal immune Ni-silicide for nano-scale MOSFET technology.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.02a
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• pp.215-216
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• 2013

The silicide is a compound of Si with an electropositive component. Silicides are commonly used in silicon-based microelectronics to reduce resistivity of gate and local interconnect metallization. The popular silicide candidates, CoSi2 and TiSi2, have some limitations. TiSi2 showed line width dependent sheet resistance and has difficulty in transformation of the C49 phase to the low resistive C54. CoSi2 consumes more Si than TiSi2. Nickel silicide is a promising material to substitute for those silicide materials providing several advantages; low resistivity, lower Si consumption and lower formation temperature. Nickel silicide (NiSi) nanowire (NW) has features of a geometrically tiny size in terms of diameter and significantly long directional length, with an excellent electrical conductivity. According to these advantages, NiSi NWs have been applied to various nanoscale applications, such as interconnects [1,2], field emitters [3], and functional microscopy tips [4]. Beside its tiny geometric feature, NW can provide a large surface area at a fixed volume. This makes the material viable for photovoltaic architecture, allowing it to be used to enhance the light-active region [5]. Additionally, a recent report has suggested that an effective antireflection coating-layer can be made with by NiSi NW arrays [6]. A unique growth mechanism of nickel silicide (NiSi) nanowires (NWs) was thermodynamically investigated. The reaction between Ni and Si primarily determines NiSi phases according to the deposition condition. Optimum growth conditions were found at $375^{\circ}C$ leading long and high-density NiSi NWs. The ignition of NiSi NWs is determined by the grain size due to the nucleation limited silicide reaction. A successive Ni diffusion through a silicide layer was traced from a NW grown sample. Otherwise Ni-rich or Si-rich phase induces a film type growth. This work demonstrates specific existence of NiSi NW growth [7].

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.332-337
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• 2006

We prepared 100 nm-thick CoNi composite silicide on a 70 nm-thick polysilicon substrate. Composite silicide laye.s were formed by rapid thermal annealing(RTA) at the temperatures of $700^{\circ}C,\;900^{\circ}C,\;1000^{\circ}C$ for 40 seconds. A Focused ion beam (FIB) was used to make nano-patterns with the operation range of 30 kV and $1{\sim}100$ pA. We investigated the change of thickness, line width, and the slope angle of the silicide patterns by FIB. More easily made with the FIB process than with the conventional polycide process. We successfully fabricated sub-100nm etched patterns with FIB condition of 30kv-30pA. Our result implies that we may integrate nano patterns with our newly proposed CoNi composite silicides.