Nickel silicide technology

In this chapter, nickel silicide as the next material for contact to microelectronic CMOS devices is presented. The material properties of NiSi with an emphasis on characteristics that are different from the prior CoSi2 and TiSi2 contacts. It covers the in situ measurements of the phase formation sequence, putting emphasis on the presence of multiple metal-rich phases, on the very low formation temperature and on formation mechanisms. Interesting properties of Ni monosilicide that are either new or hardly known in the microelectronics field, namely the large anisotropy in the thermal expansion and the unexpected texture in NiSi films formed on single crystal silicon are discussed. It also covers thin film degradation at high temperature either through the formation of NiSi2 or through grain grooving and agglomeration.