• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.389-392
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• 1999

We employed cobalt-disilicide for high-speed logic devices. We prepared stable and low resistant $CoSi_2$ through typical fabrication process including wet cleaning and rapid thermal process (RTP). We sputtered 15nm thick cobalt on the wafer and performed RTP annealing 2 times to obtain 60nm thick $CoSi_2$. We observed spherical shape voids with diameter of 40nm in the surface and inside $CoSi_2$ layers. The voids resulted in taking over abnormal junction leakage current and contact resistance values. We report that the voids in $CoSi_2$ layers are resulted from surface pits during the ion implantation previous to deposit cobalt layer. Silicide reaction rate around pits was enhanced due to Gibbs-Thompson effects and the volume expansion of the silicidation of the flat active regime trapped dimples. We confirmed that keeping the buffer oxide layer during ion implantation and annealing the silicon surface after ion implantation were required to prevent void defects in CoSi$_2$ layers.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.43-47
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• 2003

As and BF$_2$dopants are implanted for the formation of source/drain with dose of 1${\times}$10$^{15}$ ions/$\textrm{cm}^2$∼5${\times}$10$^{15}$ ions/$\textrm{cm}^2$ then formed cobalt disilicide with Co/Ti deposition and doubly rapid thermal annealing. Appropriate ion implantation and cobalt salicide process are employed to meet the sub-0.13 $\mu\textrm{m}$ CMOS devices. We investigated the process results of sheet resistance, dopant redistribution, and surface-interface microstructure with a four-point probe, a secondary ion mass spectroscope(SIMS), a scanning probe microscope (SPM), and a cross sectional transmission electron microscope(TEM), respectively. Sheet resistance increased to 8%∼12% as dose increased in $CoSi_2$$n^{＋}$ and $CoSi_2$$p^{V}$ , while sheet resistance uniformity showed very little variation. SIMS depth profiling revealed that the diffusion of As and B was enhanced as dose increased in $CoSi_2$$n^{＋}$ and $CoSi_2$$p^{＋}$ . The surface roughness of root mean square(RMS) values measured by a SPM decreased as dose increased in $CoSi_2$$n^{＋}$ , while little variation was observed in $CoSi_2$$p^{＋}$ . Cross sectional TEM images showed that the spikes of 30 nm∼50 nm-depth were formed at the interfaces of $CoSi_2$$n^{＋}$ / and $CoSi_2$/$p^{＋}$, which indicate the possible leakage current source. Our result implied that Co/Ti cobalt salicide was compatible with high dose sub-0.13$\mu\textrm{m}$ process.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.38 no.10
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• pp.871-875
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• 2001

Cobalt silicidation at sidewall spacer edge of Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistors (MOSFETs) with post annealing treatment for capacitor forming process has been investigated as a function of dopant species. Cobalt silicidation of nMOSFET with n-type Lightly Doped Drain (LDD) and pMOSFET with p-type LDD produces a well-developed cobalt silicide with its lateral growth underneath the sidewall spacer. In case of pMOSFET with n-type LDD, however, a void is formed at the sidewall spacer edge with no lateral growth of cobalt silicide. The void formation seems to be due to a retarded silicidation process at the LDD region during the first Rapid Thermal Annealing (RTA) for the reaction of Co with Si, resulting in cobalt mono silicide at the LDD region. The subsequent second RTA converts the cobalt monosilicide into cobalt disilicide with the consumption of Si atoms from the Si substrate, producing the void at the sidewall spacer edge in the Si region. The void formed at the sidewall spacer edge serves as a resistance in the current-voltage characteristics of the pMOSFET device.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.377-382
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• 2002

We investigated the appropriate wet cleaning process for Co-Ti-Si compounds formed on top of cobalt disilicide made from Co/Ti deposition and two rapid thermal annealing (RTA). We employed three wet cleaning processes, WP1 ($H_2$SO$_4$ etchant), WP2 ($NH_4$OH etchant), and WP3 which execute sequentially WP1 and WP2 after the first RTA. All samples were cleaned with BOE etchant after the second RTA. We characterized the sheet resistance with process steps by a four-point probe, the microstructure evolution by a cross detail sectional transmission electron microscope, a Auger depth profiler, and a X-ray diffractometer (XRD). We confirmed WP3 wet cleaning process were the most suitable to remove CoTiSi layer selectively.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.335-340
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• 2000

We investigated the role of the capping layers in the formation of the cobalt silicide in Co/Si systems with TiN and Ti capping layers and without capping layers. The Co/Si interfacial reactions and the phase transformations by the rapid thermal annealing (RTA) processes were observed by sheet resistance measurements, XRD, SIMS and TEM analyses for the clean silicon substrate as well as for the chemically oxidized silicon substrate by $H_2SO_4$. We observed the retardation of the cobalt disilicide formation in the Co/Si system with Ti capping layers. In the case of Co/$SiO_2$/Si system, cobalt silicide was formed by the Co/Si reaction due to with the dissociation of the oxide layer by the Ti capping layers.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.88-93
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• 2003

Co/Ti bilayer structure in Co salicide process helps to the improvement of device speed by lowering contact resistance due to the epitaxial growth of $CoSi_2$layers. We investigated the epitaxial growth and interfacial mass transport of $CoSi_2$layers formed from $150 \AA$-Co/Ti structure with two step rapid thermal annealing (RTA). The thicknesses of Ti layers were varied from 20 $\AA$ to 100 $\AA$. After we confirmed the appropriate deposition of Ti film even below $100\AA$-thick, we investigated the cross sectional microstructure, surface roughness, eptiaxial growth, and mass transportation of$ CoSi_2$films formed from various Ti thickness with a cross sectional transmission electron microscopy XTEM), scanning probe microscopy (SPM), X-ray diffractometery (XRD), and Auger electron depth profiling, respectively. We found that all Ti interlayer led to$ CoSi_2$epitaxial growth, while $20 \AA$-thick Ti caused imperfect epitaxy. Ti interlayer also caused Co-Ti-Si compounds on top of $CoSi_2$, which were very hard to remove selectively. Our result implied that we need to employ appropriate Ti thickness to enhance the epitaxial growth as well as to lessen Co-Ti-Si compound formation.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.390-396
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• 2003

As the design rule of device continued to shrink, the contact resistance in small contact size became important. Although the conventional TiN/Ti structure as a ohmic layer has been widely used, we propose a new TiN/Co film structure. We characterized a contact resistance by using a chain pattern and a KELVIN pattern, and a leakage current determined by current-voltage measurements. Moreover, the microstructure of TiN/ Ti/ silicide/n$\^$+/ contact was investigated by a cross-sectional transmission electron microscope (TEM). The contact resistance by the Co ohmic layer showed the decrease of 26 % compared to that of a Ti ohmic layer in the chain resistance, and 50 ％ in KELYIN resistance, respectively. A Co ohmic layer shows enough ohmic behaviors comparable to the Ti ohmic layer, while higher leakage currents in wide area pattern than Ti ohmic layer. We confirmed that an uniform silicide thickness and a good interface roughness were able to be achieved in a CoSi$_2$ Process formed on a n$\^$+/ silicon junction from TEM images.