Improvement of Thermal Stability of Nickel Silicide Using Multi-Capping Structure

In this paper, the electrical properties of NiSi have been characterized using multi capping layer structure for nano CMOS application. We have investigated the formation and thermal stability of Ni silicide using Ni, Ti and TiN capping layers (Ti/Ni/TiN) as a function of Rapid Thermal Processing (RTP) temperature. It was shown that the NiSi with multi capping layer has lower sheet resistances than that with single capping (TiN) layer. NiSi with multi capping layer also showed much better thermal stability. It was verified that the formation Ni-Ti-Si ternary like layer at the top region of thhe NiSi results in improvement of thermal stability.