• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.528-537
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• 2008

60 nm and 20 nm thick hydrogenated amorphous silicon(a-Si:H) layers were deposited on 200 nm $SiO_2$/single-Si substrates by inductively coupled plasma chemical vapor deposition(ICP-CVD). Subsequently, 30 nm-Ni layers were deposited by an e-beam evaporator. Finally, 30 nm-Ni/(60 nm and 20 nm) a-Si:H/200 nm-$SiO_2$/single-Si structures were prepared. The prepared samples were annealed by rapid thermal annealing(RTA) from $200^{\circ}C$ to $500^{\circ}C$ in $50^{\circ}C$ increments for 40 sec. A four-point tester, high resolution X-ray diffraction(HRXRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy(FE-SEM), transmission electron microscopy(TEM), and scanning probe microscopy(SPM) were used to examine the sheet resistance, phase transformation, in-plane microstructure, cross-sectional microstructure, and surface roughness, respectively. The nickel silicide from the 60 nm a-Si:H substrate showed low sheet resistance from $400^{\circ}C$ which is compatible for low temperature processing. The nickel silicide from 20 nm a-Si:H substrate showed low resistance from $300^{\circ}C$. Through HRXRD analysis, the phase transformation occurred with silicidation temperature without a-Si:H layer thickness dependence. With the result of FE-SEM and TEM, the nickel silicides from 60 nm a-Si:H substrate showed the microstructure of 60 nm-thick silicide layers with the residual silicon regime, while the ones from 20 nm a-Si:H formed 20 nm-thick uniform silicide layers. In case of SPM, the RMS value of nickel silicide layers increased as the silicidation temperature increased. Especially, the nickel silicide from 20 nm a-Si:H substrate showed the lowest RMS value of 0.75 at $300^{\circ}C$.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.332-337
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• 2006

We prepared 100 nm-thick CoNi composite silicide on a 70 nm-thick polysilicon substrate. Composite silicide laye.s were formed by rapid thermal annealing(RTA) at the temperatures of $700^{\circ}C,\;900^{\circ}C,\;1000^{\circ}C$ for 40 seconds. A Focused ion beam (FIB) was used to make nano-patterns with the operation range of 30 kV and $1{\sim}100$ pA. We investigated the change of thickness, line width, and the slope angle of the silicide patterns by FIB. More easily made with the FIB process than with the conventional polycide process. We successfully fabricated sub-100nm etched patterns with FIB condition of 30kv-30pA. Our result implies that we may integrate nano patterns with our newly proposed CoNi composite silicides.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.358-369
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• 1995

Surface structure and adhesion by the reaction between thin metal films and SiC were studied at temperatures between 550 and $1450^{\circ}C$ for various times. The reaction with the formation of various silicides was initially observed above $850^{\circ}C$ for SiC/Co system and $650^{\circ}C$ for SiC/Ni system. The cobalt reacted with SiC and consumed completely at $1050^{\circ}C$ for 0.5 h and the nickel at $950^{\circ}C$ for 2 h. The observed CoSi phase in SiC/Co and Ni$_2$Si phase in SiC/Ni are thermodynamically stable in the reaction zone up to 125$0^{\circ}C$ and $1050^{\circ}C$ respectively. Carbon was crystallized as graphite above $1450^{\circ}C$ for SiC/Co reaction surface and $1250^{\circ}C$ for SiC/Ni. The critical loads of the thin metal films on SiC substrate were qualitatively compared in terms of the scratch test method. At temperatures between 850 and $1050^{\circ}C$, relatively higher values of 20~33 N were observed for SiC/Ni couples.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.109-121
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• 1995

Reaction coulples of SiC with cobalt were annealed in an Ar/4 vol% $H_2$ atmosphere at temperatures between $950^{\circ}C$ and $1250^{\circ}C$for various times between 4 and 100 h. At temperatures above $950^{\circ}C$, solid state reactions lead to the formation of various silicides with carbon precipitates. The typical reaction layer sequence was $SiC/CoSi + C/CozSi + C/CozSi/CozSi + C/{\cdot\cdot\}/CO_2Si/CO$ in the reaction zone. The mechanism of the periodic band structure formation with the carbon precipitation behaviour was examined and discussed in terms of reaction kinetics and thermodynamic considerations. The growth of the reaction zone has a square root of time dependence. The reaction kinetics is proposed to estimate the effective reaction constant from the parabolic gowth of the reaction zone. The mechanical properties of the reaction zones were determined by the microhardness test.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.133-140
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• 2010

10 nm thick Ni layers were deposited on 200 nm $SiO_2/Si$ substrates using an e-beam evaporator. Then, 60 nm or 20 nm thick ${\alpha}$-Si:H layers were grown at low temperature (<$200^{\circ}C$) by a Catalytic-CVD. NiSi layers were already formed instantaneously during Cat-CVD process regardless of the thickness of the $\alpha$-Si. The resulting changes in sheet resistance, microstructure, phase, chemical composition, and surface roughness with the additional rapid thermal annealing up to $500^{\circ}C$ were examined using a four point probe, HRXRD, FE-SEM, TEM, AES, and SPM, respectively. The sheet resistance of the NiSi layer was 12${\Omega}$/□ regardless of the thickness of the ${\alpha}$-Si and kept stable even after the additional annealing process. The thickness of the NiSi layer was 30 nm with excellent uniformity and the surface roughness was maintained under 2 nm after the annealing. Accordingly, our result implies that the low temperature Cat-CVD process with proposed films stack sequence may have more advantages than the conventional CVD process for nano scale NiSi applications.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.11 no.7
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• pp.556-561
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• 2001

We prepared a new a SOS(silicon-on-silicide) wafer pair which is consisted of Si(100)/1000$\AA$-NiSi Si (100) layers. SOS can be employed in MEMS(micro- electronic-mechanical system) application due to low resistance of the NiSi layer. A thermally evaporated $1000\AA$-thick Ni/Si wafer and a clean Si wafer were pre-mated in the class 100 clean room, then annealed at $300~900^{\circ}C$ for 15hrs to induce silicidation reaction. SOS wafer pairs were investigated by a IR camera to measure bonded area and probed by a SEM(scanning electron microscope) and TEM(transmission electron microscope) to observe cross-sectional view of Si/NiSi. IR camera observation showed that the annealed SOS wafer pairs have over 52% bonded area in all temperature region except silicidation phase transition temperature. By probing cross-sectional view with SEM of magnification of 30,000, we found that $1000\AA$-thick uniform NiSi layer was formed at the center area of bonded wafers without void defects. However we observed debonded area at the edge area of wafers. Through TEM observation, we found that $10-20\AA$ thick amourphous layer formed between Si surface and NiSix near the counter part of SOS. This layer may be an oxide layer and lead to degradation of bonding. At the edge area of wafers, that amorphous layer was formed even to thickness of $1500\AA$ during annealing. Therefore, to increase bonding area of Si NiSi ∥ Si wafer pairs, we may lessen the amorphous layers.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.25-32
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• 2007

We investigated the silicide reaction stability between 10 nm-Col-xNix alloy films and silicon substrates with the existence of 4 nm-thick natural oxide layers. We thermally evaporated 10 nm-Col-xNix alloy films by varying $x=0.1{\sim}0.9$ on naturally oxidized single crystal and 70 nm-thick polycrystalline silicon substrates. The films structures were annealed by rapid thermal annealing (RTA) from $600^{\circ}C$ to $1100^{\circ}C$ for 40 seconds with the purpose of silicidation. After the removal of residual metallic residue with sulfuric acid, the sheet resistance, microstructure, composition, and surface roughness were investigated using a four-point probe, a field emission scanning electron microscope, a field ion bean4 an X-ray diffractometer, and an Auger electron depth profiling spectroscope, respectively, to confirm the silicide reaction. The residual stress of silicon substrate was also analyzed using a micro-Raman spectrometer We report that the silicide reaction does not occur if natural oxides are present. Metallic oxide residues may be present on a polysilicon substrate at high silicidation temperatures. Huge residual stress is possible on a single crystal silicon substrate at high temperature, and these may result in micro-pinholes. Our results imply that the natural oxide layer removal process is of importance to ensure the successful completion of the silicide process with CoNi alloy films.