Titanium Silicide on Si:P With Precontact Amorphization Implantation Treatment: Contact Resistivity Approaching $1 \times 10^{-9}$ Ohm-cm2

Abstract

In recent CMOS technology, extreme shrinking of contact area at source/drain regions raises serious concerns of high metal/semiconductor contact resistance. Confronting this problem, we introduce a precontact amorphization implantation plus Ti silicidation technique (PCAI + TiSi <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">x</sub> ) and achieve ultralow contact resistivity (ρ <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">c</sub> ) of (1.3 - 1.5) × 10 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">-9</sup> Ω · cm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> on Si:P. This PCAI + TiSi <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">x</sub> technique utilizes light amorphization (low-energy implantation), thin Ti and TiSi <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">x</sub> film, and moderate thermal budget (500°C-550°C): these features are compatible with modern CMOS manufacturing. Moreover, the PCAI + TiSi <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">x</sub> -induced ρ <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">c</sub> reduction is proved universal on both n- and p-Si. With additional characterizations, we find that the silicidation-induced ρ <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">c</sub> variation is not merely a Schottky barrier height tuning effect. The electrical and physical characterizations suggest that the low ρ <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">c</sub> is strongly correlated with the formation of interfacial TiSi <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">x</sub> crystallites between amorphous TiSi alloy and Si.