• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2007.06a
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• pp.250-253
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• 2007

An evaporated Ti/Pd/Ag contact system is most widely used to make high-efficiency silicon solar cells, however, the system is not cost effective due to expensive materials and vacuum techniques. Commercial solar cells with screen-printed contacts formed by using Ag paste suffer from a low fill factor and a high shading loss because of high contact resistance and low aspect ratio. Low-cost Ni and Cu metal contacts have been formed by using electroless plating and electroplating techniques to replace the Ti/Pd/Ag and screen-printed Ag contacts. Ni/Cu alloy is plated on a silicon substrate by electro-deposition of the alloy from an acetate electrolyte solution, and nickel-silicide formation at the interface between the silicon and the nickel enhances stability and reduces the contact resistance. It was, therefore, found that nickel-silicide was suitable for high-efficiency solar cell applications. The Ni contact was formed on the front grid pattern by electroless plating followed by anneal ing at $380{\sim}400^{\circ}C$ for $15{\sim}30$ min at $N_{2}$ gas to allow formation of a nickel-silicide in a tube furnace or a rapid thermal processing(RTP) chamber because nickel is transformed to NiSi at $380{\sim}400^{\circ}C$. The Ni plating solution is composed of a mixture of $NiCl_{2}$ as a main nickel source. Cu was electroplated on the Ni layer by using a light induced plating method. The Cu electroplating solution was made up of a commercially available acid sulfate bath and additives to reduce the stress of the copper layer. The Ni/Cu contact was found to be well suited for high-efficiency solar cells and was successfully formed by using electroless plating and electroplating, which are more cost effective than vacuum evaporation. In this paper, we investigated low-cost Ni/Cu contact formation by electroless and electroplating for crystalline silicon solar cells.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.73-80
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• 2007

For the sub-65 nm CMOS process, it is necessary to develop a new silicide material and an accompanying process that allows the silicide to maintain a low sheet resistance and to have an enhanced thermal stability, thus providing for a wider process window. In this study, we have evaluated the property and unit process compatibility of newly proposed composite silicides. We fabricated composite silicide layers on single crystal silicon from $10nm-Ni_{1-x}Co_x/single-crystalline-Si(100),\;10nm-Ni_{1-x}Co_x/poly-crystalline-\;Si(100)$ wafers (x=0.2, 0.5, and 0.8) with the purpose of mimicking the silicides on source and drain actives and gates. Both the film structures were prepared by thermal evaporation and silicidized by rapid thermal annealing (RTA) from $700^{\circ}C\;to\;1100^{\circ}C$ for 40 seconds. The sheet resistance, cross-sectional microstructure, surface composition, were investigated using a four-point probe, a field emission scanning probe microscope, a field ion beam, an X-ray diffractometer, and an Auger electron depth profi1ing spectroscopy, respectively. Finally, our newly proposed composite silicides had a stable resistance up to $1100^{\circ}C$ and maintained it below $20{\Omega}/Sg$., while the conventional NiSi was limited to $700^{\circ}C$. All our results imply that the composite silicide made from NiCo alloy films may be a possible candidate for 65 nm-CMOS devices.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.47-51
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• 2008

In this paper, thermal stability of Nickel silicide formed on p-type silicon wafer using Ni-V alloy film was studied. As compared with pure Ni, Ni-V shows better thermal stability. The addition of Vanadium suppresses the phase transition of NiSi to $NiSi_2$ effectively. Ni-V single structure shows the best thermal stability compared with the other Ni-silicide using TiN and Co/TiN capping layers. To enhance the thermal stability up to $650^{\circ}C$ and find out the optimal thickness of Ni silicide, different thickness of Ni-V was also investigated in this work.

• Proceedings of the International Microelectronics And Packaging Society Conference
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• 2000.04a
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• pp.109-109
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• 2000

Recently, carbon nanotube has been investigating for field emission display ( (FED) applications due to its high electron emission at relatively low electric field. However, the growing of carbon nanotube generally requires relatively high temperature processing such as arc-discharge (5,000 ~ $20,000^{\circ}C$) and laser evaporation (4,000 ~ $5,000^{\circ}C$) methods. In this presentation, low temperature growing of carbon nanotube by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) using nickel catalyst which is compatible to conventional FED processing temperature will be described. Carbon n notubes with average length of 100 run and diameter of 2 ~ $3\mu$ill were successfully grown on silicon substrate with native oxide layer at $550^{\circ}C$using nickel catalyst. The morphology and microstructure of carbon nanotube was highly depended on the processing temperature and nickel layer thickness. No significant carbon nanotube growing was observed with samples deposited on silicon substrates without native oxide layer. This is believed due to the formation of nickel-silicide and this deteriorated the catalytic role of nickel. The formation of nickel-silicide was confirmed by x-ray analysis. The role of native oxide layer and processing parameter dependence on microstructure of low temperature grown carbon nanotube, characterized by SEM, TEM XRD and R없nan spectroscopy, will be presented.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.195-200
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• 2007

We fabricated thermally-evaporated 10 nm-Ni/70 w-Poly-Si/200 $nm-SiO_2/Si$ and $10nm-Ni_{0.5}Co_{0.5}/70$ nm-Poly-Si/200 $nm-SiO_2/Si$ structures to investigate the microstructure of nickel monosilicide at the elevated temperatures required fur annealing. Silicides underwent rapid anneal at the temperatures of $600{\sim}1100^{\circ}C$ for 40 seconds. Silicides suitable for the salicide process formed on top of the polycrystalline silicon substrate mimicking the gates. A four-point tester was used to investigate the sheet resistances. A transmission electron microscope and an Auger depth profile scope were employed for the determination of cross sectional microstructure and thickness. 20nm thick nickel cobalt composite silicides on polycrystalline silicon showed low resistance up to $900^{\circ}C$, while the conventional nickle silicide showed low resistance below $900^{\circ}C$. Through TEM analysis, we confirmed that the 70nm-thick nickel cobalt composite silicide showed a unique silicon-silicide mixing at the high silicidation temperature of $1000^{\circ}C$. We identified $Ni_3Si_2,\;CoSi_2$ phase at $700^{\circ}C$ using an X-ray diffractometer. Auger depth profile analysis also supports the presence of this mixed microstructure. Our result implies that our newly proposed NiCo composite silicide from NiCo alloy films process may widen the thermal process window for the salicide process and be suitable for nano-thick silicides.

• 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 Vacuum Society
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.528-537
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• 2008

60 nm and 20 nm thick hydrogenated amorphous silicon(a-Si:H) layers were deposited on 200 nm $SiO_2$/single-Si substrates by inductively coupled plasma chemical vapor deposition(ICP-CVD). Subsequently, 30 nm-Ni layers were deposited by an e-beam evaporator. Finally, 30 nm-Ni/(60 nm and 20 nm) a-Si:H/200 nm-$SiO_2$/single-Si structures were prepared. The prepared samples were annealed by rapid thermal annealing(RTA) from $200^{\circ}C$ to $500^{\circ}C$ in $50^{\circ}C$ increments for 40 sec. A four-point tester, high resolution X-ray diffraction(HRXRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy(FE-SEM), transmission electron microscopy(TEM), and scanning probe microscopy(SPM) were used to examine the sheet resistance, phase transformation, in-plane microstructure, cross-sectional microstructure, and surface roughness, respectively. The nickel silicide from the 60 nm a-Si:H substrate showed low sheet resistance from $400^{\circ}C$ which is compatible for low temperature processing. The nickel silicide from 20 nm a-Si:H substrate showed low resistance from $300^{\circ}C$. Through HRXRD analysis, the phase transformation occurred with silicidation temperature without a-Si:H layer thickness dependence. With the result of FE-SEM and TEM, the nickel silicides from 60 nm a-Si:H substrate showed the microstructure of 60 nm-thick silicide layers with the residual silicon regime, while the ones from 20 nm a-Si:H formed 20 nm-thick uniform silicide layers. In case of SPM, the RMS value of nickel silicide layers increased as the silicidation temperature increased. Especially, the nickel silicide from 20 nm a-Si:H substrate showed the lowest RMS value of 0.75 at $300^{\circ}C$.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.14 no.12
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• pp.846-850
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• 2004

NiCo silicide films have been fabricated from $300{\AA}-thick\;Ni_{1-x}Co_{x}(x=0.1\sim0.9)$ on Si-substrates by varying RTA(rapid thermal annealing) temperatures from $700^{\circ}C\;to\;1100^{\circ}C$ for 40 sec. Sheet resistance, cross-sectional microstructure, and chemical composition evolution were measured by a four point probe, a transmission electron microscope(TEM), and an Auger depth profilemeter, respectively. For silicides of the all composition and temperatures except for $80\%$ of the Ni composition, we observed small sheet resistance of sub- $7\;{\Omega}/sq.,$ which was stable even at $1100^{\circ}C$. We report that our newly proposed NiCo silicides may obtain sub 50 nm-thick films by tunning the nickel composition and silicidation temperature. New NiCo silicides from NiCo-alloys may be more appropriate for sub-0.1${\mu}m$ CMOS process, compared to conventional single phase or stacked composit silicides.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.619-622
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• 2005

본 논문에서는 서로 다른 Si 두께 ($T_{Si}$ = 27, 50 nm) 를 갖는 SOI (Silicon On Insulator) 기판 위에 다양한 두께의 Ni/Co를 순차적으로 증착한 후 Bulk-Si과의 비교를 통해 Silicide의 형성 특성에 대하여 분석하였다. 우선 급속 열처리 (RTP, Rapid Thermal Processing) 를 통하여 Silicide를 형성한 후 측정결과 Si두께에 따라 Silicide의 특성이 달라짐을 확인하였다. 두꺼운 두께의 Si-film을 갖는 SOI 기판을 사용한 경우 증착된 금속의 두께에 따라 Bulk-Si와 비슷한 면저항 특성을 보였으나, 얇은 두께의 Si-film을 갖는 SOI기판을 사용한 경우에는 제한된 Si의 공급으로 인한 Silicide의 비저항 증가로 인하여 증착된 금속의 두께에 따라 면저항이 감소하다가 다시 증가하는 'V' 자형 곡선을 나타내었다.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.389-393
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• 2004

The silicide layer used as a diffusion barrier in microelectronics is typically required to be below 50 nm-thick and, the same time, the silicides also need to have low contact resistance without agglomeration at high processing temperatures. We fabricated Si(100)/15 nm-Ni/15 nm-Co samples with a thermal evaporator, and annealed the samples for 40 seconds at temperatures ranging from $700^{\circ}C$ to $1100^{\circ}C$ using rapid thermal annealing. We investigated microstructural and compositional changes during annealing using transmission electron microscopy and auger electron spectroscopy. Sheet resistance of the annealed sample stack was measured with a four point probe. The sheet resistance measurements for our proposed Co/Ni composite silicide was below 8 $\Omega$/sq. even after annealing $1100^{\circ}C$, while conventional nickel-monosilicide showed abrupt phase transformation at $700^{\circ}C$. Microstructure and auger depth profiling showed that the silicides in our sample consisted of intermixed phases of $CoNiSi_{x}$ and NiSi. It was noticed that NiSi grew rapidly at the silicon interface with increasing annealing temperature without transforming into $NiSi_2$. Our results imply that Co/Ni composite silicide should have excellent high temperature stability even in post-silicidation processes.