Silicide pre-clean effects on NiPtSi thermal stability for 65 nm technologies and beyond

The effects of different surface preparations on NiPtSi thermal stability were studied. HF wet clean, argon sputter etch and remote plasma pre-clean were used as silicide pre-cleans prior to NiPt sputter deposition and subsequent silicidation on blanket and patterned Si wafers. NiPtSi was characterized using SIMS, ellipsometry, voltage contrast (ES25) testing and electrical performance measurements of 65 nm test structures. Results show that when an in situ remote plasma pre-clean is used in addition to a classical HF wet clean to remove native oxide from the Si substrate prior to NiPt deposition and silicidation, Rs uniformity and SRAM electrical performance as a function of thermal budget are significantly improved. Rs measurements of patterned wafers and SIMS analysis of blanket wafers strongly suggest that the absence of native oxide prior to NiPt deposition and the presence of fluorine at the NiPtSi/Si interface play a key role in improving NiPtSi thermal stability.