Determination of the interface properties of Ni-silicided strained-Si/SiGe heterostructure Schottky diodes using capacitance–voltage technique

Capacitance–voltage (C–V) profiling has been used to study the interface properties and apparent doping profile of NiSi/strained-Si heterostructure Schottky diodes. The interface states have been characterized using the capacitance–voltage (C–V) and capacitance–frequency (C–f) techniques for diodes annealed at 400 and 600 °C. Based on the depletion approximation and interfacial layer with interface states, an equivalent circuit model has been developed to explain the anomalous C–V characteristics observed in case of silicided-Schottky diodes. Self-consistent analytical expressions, developed from the proposed equivalent circuit, have been used to simulate the experimental C–V characteristics using both the MATHCAD and SEMICAD device simulation tool. An excellent agreement has been obtained between the experimental and simulated C–V characteristics, which strongly support the validity of the proposed model.