Screen printed thick film nickel-silicon interaction

Abstract This paper reports the interaction of screen printed thick film nickel with N-Si (100), 3–6 Ωcm resistivity both unoxidised and oxidised with windows defined into it. The nickel film after printing was air dried at 150°C for 10 min and finally air fired at 550, 650, 750 and 850°C in a conveyor furnace with 60 min cycle. The high temperature firing yielded the minimum sheet resistance of 55 mΩ/. The barrier heights and the ideality factors were 0.74, 1.5; 0.70, 1.0; 0.69, 1.0; and 0.73, 2.8 at the above temperatures. The contact resistance was found to be lowest, i.e. 90 Ωcm 2 at the firing temperature of 850°C. The SEM combined with EDS of the top surface and the cross sections of the interface revealed (1) the lead from the printed line flows by 40 μm and 100 μm at firing temperatures of 750 and 850°C respectively, (2) the interface reaction zone consisting of Ni 2 Si is uniform and is 1 μm thick. However, at 850°C a few V-grooves 5 μm × 5 μm filled with lead and nickel are generated. The possible applications of the interactions are suggested.

[1]  S. Simeonov,et al.  Preparation of Mo/Si Schottky barriers by chemical vapour deposition of molybdenum onto epitaxial silicon substrates , 1984 .

[2]  C. J. Kircher,et al.  Metallurgical properties and electrical characteristics of palladium silicide-silicon contacts , 1971 .

[3]  M. Nicolet,et al.  Implanted oxygen in NiSi formation , 1981 .

[4]  Maria Prudenziati,et al.  Some features of thick film technology for the back metallization of solar cells , 1984 .

[5]  H. Grubin.  The physics of semiconductor devices , 1979, IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics.

[6]  C. Canali,et al.  Pt2Si and PtSi formation with high‐purity Pt thin films , 1977 .

[7]  C. Canali,et al.  On the formation of Ni and Pt silicide first phase: The dominant role of reaction kinetics , 1978 .

[8]  C. R. Crowell,et al.  Current transport in metal-semiconductor barriers , 1966 .

[9]  J. E. E. Baglin,et al.  Formation of thin films of NiSi: Metastable structure, diffusion mechanisms in intermetallic compounds , 1984 .

[10]  G. Gildenblat,et al.  Platinum silicide ohmic contacts to shallow junctions in silicon , 1982 .

[11]  M. Nicolet,et al.  Alteration of Ni silicide formation by N implantation , 1981 .

[12]  James W. Mayer,et al.  Effect of Oxidizing Ambients on Platinum Silicide Formation II . Auger and Backscattering Analyses , 1975 .

[13]  M. Kelly,et al.  Amorphous metal-semiconductor contacts for high temperature electronics—I Materials and characterisation , 1984 .