Characteristics of DC magnetron sputtered ternary cobaltnickel silicide thin films for ultra shallow junction devices
Ternary cobaltnickel silicide thin films were synthesized by DC magnetron sputtering from an equiatomic cobaltnickel alloy target. Grazing incidence XRD, Rutherford back scattering, high-resolution cross-sectional TEM analysis and electrical study were carried out to investigate the formation of silicide, stoichiometry, film thickness, depth profile and sheet resistance of as-deposited and post-deposition annealed films. The ternary silicide layer thickness was calculated from RBS simulated data, which was found to vary 2043nm for as-deposited and different vacuum annealed films. A minimum value of sheet resistance 2.73?/sq corresponding to a resistivity of ?8.4??-cm was obtained for optimized deposition and annealing conditions.
sputtering ternary cobaltnickel silicides rutherford back scattering resistivity annealing surface diffusion