• 대한금속재료학회지
• /
• 제46권2호
• /
• pp.69-79
• /
• 2008

A composition consisting of 10 nm-Ni/1 nm-Pd/(30 nm or 70 nm-poly)Si was thermally annealed using rapid thermal for 40 seconds at $300{\sim}1100^{\circ}C$ to improve the thermal stability of conventional nickel monosilicide. The annealed bilayer structure developed into $Ni(Pd)Si_x$, and the resulting changes in sheet resistance, microstructure, phase, chemical composition, and surface roughness were investigated. The silicide, which formed on single crystal silicon, could defer the transformation of $NiSi_2$, and was stable at temperatures up to $1100^{\circ}C$. It remained unchanged on polysilicon substrate compared with the sheet resistance of conventional nickel silicide. The silicides annealed at $700^{\circ}C$, formed on single crystal silicon and 30 nm polysilicon substrates exhibited 30 nm-thick uniform silicide layers. However, silicide annealed at $1,000^{\circ}C$ showed preferred and agglomerated phase. The high resistance was due to the agglomerated and mixed microstructures. Through X-ray diffraction analysis, the silicide formed on single crystal silicon and 30 nm polysilicon substrate, showed NiSi phase on the entire temperature range and mixed phases of NiSi and $NiSi_2$ on 70 nm polysilicon substrate. Through scanning probe microscope (SPM) analysis, we confirmed that the surface roughness increased abruptly until 36 nm on 30 nm polysilicon substrate while not changed on single crystal and 70 nm polysilicon substrates. The Pd-inserted nickel monosilicide could maintain low resistance in a wide temperature range and is considered suitable for nano-thick silicide processing.