Improvement of junction leakage of nickel silicided junction by a Ti-capping layer

Abstract

A novel NiSi process with a thin Ti-cap layer is proposed, for the first time, to improve the leakage problem of Ni-silicided junction, The Ti-cap samples exhibit a very low leakage current density about 1 x 10 A/cm(2) after 600 degrees C annealing, which is one order of magnitude reduction comparing with uncapped samples. From Anger analyzes, it is found that this significant improvement results from suppression of the oxidation of the Ni-silicide during the thermal annealing process.