Characterization of CMOS sub-65nm metallic contact by laser scattering: Thermal stability of Ni(Si1?xGex)
Very efficient in particles detection, light scattering also offers fast non-invasive full-mapping wafer surface state. This sensitivity was used in the case of germano-silicide process development. As a matter of fact, we report on haze measurement performances, compared to the usual methods used to investigate thermal stability of Ni(Si1?xGex), such as sheet resistance (SR), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). We observed defectivity related to thermal agglomeration and Ge-segregation of Ni(Si1?xGex) on strain Si1?xGex (x?30%) by haze measurement (like SEM observations) earlier than SR measurement. Moreover, we noticed that a high Ge content affects at lower temperature the stability of Ni(Si1?xGex) with a segregation phenomena.
laser scattering thermal stability germano-silicide haze agglomeration segregation