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A Study of the Morphology of Titanium Silicide Films and the Titanium Silicide-Silicon Interface
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 February 2011
Abstract
This paper is based on a detailed study of the effect of high temperature heat treatment in a nitrogen ambient on the titanium silicide film and the silicide-silicon interface. Our investigations showed that the two cannot be studied in isolation. This study involved observing the morphology of the silicide film after thermal treatment in a furnace at 925° C for 5, 30, 60 and 120 minutes. Part of each wafer was then stripped of silicide, thereby exposing the morphology of the interface of TiSi2 with Si. In this way, it was possible to correlate the changes on the surface with that of the interface. The samples were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive spectroscopy. Evidence for the growth and evolution of Si islands were found as a result of this study. These islands appear to form preferentially at specific locations of the interface, namely at the meeting points of the grain boundaries of the silicide film with the interface. Even though the morphology of the silicide surface becomes more lumpy with increased annealing times, Si islands were not observed at the surface, contrary to what has been reported during vacuum annealing. It appears that the nitrogen ambient has a stabilizing influence in keeping the surface apparently stable. Associated with the increasing size of the islands was the simultaneous sinking of the TiSi2 into the Si substrate.
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- Copyright © Materials Research Society 1989
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