Formation and microstructure of thin Ti silicide films for advanced technologies
We report on the solid-state reaction of thin PVD Ti films with in-situ doped Si & SiGe alloys using a combination of in-situ x-ray diffraction, sheet resistance, laser light scattering measurements and ex-situ x-ray pole figure analysis. Thin Ti films or thin bilayer films (Ni/Ti or NiPt/Ti) are found to be much more aligned with the underlying substrates. Millisecond laser anneals also lead to the introduction of strong in-plane texture.
Contact Metallization for Advanced CMOS Technology Nodes
Continuous CMOS scaling is being driven by innovation of novel device architectures to improve device performances at lower power consumption [1]. However, middle-of-the-line (MOL) continues to be a key performance and yield detractor for scaling. To alleviate these challenges, disruptive MOL architectures and materials are being proposed. At the ≤ 10NM node, significant differences are already seen in the MOL architecture and materials used by leading semiconductor companies [2]–[4]. This is expected to continue to smaller CMOS nodes where contacts represent significant contribution to external resistance (Rext). Figure 1 illustrates the impact of scaling on source/drain (S/D) contact vertical resistance, which can be quantified as the sum of silicide contact resistance (RC) and trench metallization resistance (RTs) [5]. It can be observed that at ≥ 20 nm trench bottom critical dimension (BCD), silicide contact resistance is the predominant contributor to the total vertical resistance. At these dimensions, it is critical to lower the specific contact resistivity $(\mathsf{p}_{\mathrm{C}})$ to reduce the vertical resistance. At narrow (< 20 nm) dimensions, it is observed that trench metallization resistance (for $\mathsf{p}_{\mathrm{C}}=0)$ contribution to the total vertical resistance starts to increase. In addition, below ~11 nm of BCD we see an inflection in resistance because of the change in transport from high resistive nucleation layers to liner/barrier materials. It should be noted that this figure was generated using resistance calculations for a simple trench dimension not specific to any technology and typical MOL materials.
Finite Difference Modeling on the Temperature Field of Substrate in Friction Surfacing
Friction surfacing is an advanced process of great potential, especially in the field of repair and reclamation of worn and damaged components. As a kind of thermal processing technology, the temperature profile and changes of the substrate in friction surfacing are important factors to get coatings of high quality. In this paper, the temperature field of the substrate during the process is simulated by finite difference method. The results are consistent with experiments, reappearing the temperature change of the substrate during friction surfacing, allowing further study on figuration and quality of coatings.