TITLE:
Selective Heating of Transition Metal Usings Hydrogen Plasma and Its Application to Formation of Nickel Silicide Electrodes for Silicon Ultralarge-Scale Integration Devices
AUTHORS:
Tetsuji Arai, Hiroki Nakaie, Kazuki Kamimura, Hiroyuki Nakamura, Satoshi Ariizumi, Satoki Ashizawa, Keisuke Arimoto, Junji Yamanaka, Tetsuya Sato, Kiyokazu Nakagawa, Toshiyuki Takamatsu
KEYWORDS:
Selective Heating, Nickel Silicide Electrode, Hydrogen Plasma, Microwave Plasma
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering,
Vol.4 No.1,
January
11,
2016
ABSTRACT: We developed an apparatus for producing
high-density hydrogen plasma. The atomic hydrogen density was 3.1 × 1021 m?3 at
a pressure of 30 Pa, a microwave power of 1000 W, and a hydrogen gas flow rate
of 10 sccm. We confirmed that the temperatures of transition-metal films
increased to above 800。C within 5 s when they were exposed to hydrogen plasma
formed using the apparatus. We applied this phenomenon to the selective heat
treatment of nickel films deposited on silicon wafers and formed nickel
silicide electrodes. We found that this heat phenomenon automatically stopped
after the nickel slicidation reaction finished. To utilize this method, we can
perform the nickel silicidation process without heating the other areas such as
channel regions and improve the reliability of silicon ultralarge-scale
integration devices.