Characterization of CMOS sub-65 nm 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.