The development of titanium silicide - boron doped polysilicon resistive temperature sensors

Thin films of titanium silicide $(TiSi_2$) formed on heavily boron-doped polycrystalline silicon $(poly-Si/B^+)$ were applied for the first time for resistive temperature sensing. The temperature sensors exhibited a high-temperature coefficient of resistance of 3.8 x 10^{-3}^{\circ}\mathrm{C}^{-1}, a linear dependence of resistance on temperature and an excellent thermal and electrical stability up to 800 $^{\circ}\mathrm{C}$. This work discusses the fabrication method and the morphological and electrical characterization of the $TiSi_2/poly-Si$ thin film resistors throughout the stages of its formation

Cross-bidge Kelvin resistor (CBKR) structures for measurement of low contact resistances

A convenient test structure for measurement of the specific contact resistance (ρc) of metal-semiconductor junctions is the CBKR structure. During last few decades the parasitic factors which may strongly affect the measurements accuracy for ρc < 10-6 Ω • cm2 have been sufficiently discussed and the minimum of the ρc to be measured using CBKR structures was estimated. We fabricated a set of CBKR structures with different geometries to confirm this limit experimentally. These structures were manufactured for metal-to-metal contacts. It was found that the extracted CBKR values were determined by dimensions of the two-metal stack in the contact area and sheet resistances of the metals used. \ud Index Terms—Contact resistance, cross-bridge Kelvin resistor (CBKR), sheet resistance, test structures, metal, silico

Electrical characterization of Thin-Film structures with redeposited sidewall

Accurate electrical characterization of test structures and devices requires identification and correction for parasitic current paths in the measurement network. The sidewalls formed during reactive ion etching of thin-film phase-change material layers in argon plasma can result in parasitic current paths in the structures. In this paper, thin-film structures with redeposited sidewalls are realized, and they are experimentally characterized by electrical resistance measurements on van der Pauw test structures. The impact of conducting sidewalls on contact resistance measurements and data extraction from cross-bridge Kelvin resistor structures is discussed. The error introduced in the electrical resistance measurements from these test structures is analytically modeled. The impact on the electrical performance of devices due to the formation of sidewalls is also discussed

Growth and properties of subnanometer thin titanium nitride films

This research brings new insights into the relation between properties of ultra-thin conductive metal nitrides made by atomic layer deposition (ALD) and their possible industrial applications. The advantage of conductive nitrides over pure metals is (i) better established ALD processes allowing depositing high-quality films and (ii) the presence of nitrogen as an extra tool to manipulate the electron transport properties. In this work, we study titanium nitride (TiN) films with the aim to investigate the growth mechanism in combination with physical and electrical properties as a function of the layer thickness. In microelectronic devices, thin continuous TiN films are commonly used as diffusion barriers and metal gate material. Scaling electronic devices to nanometer dimensions requires a close look at electrical material properties as ultra-thin conductive materials encounter an insulating regime due to the depletion of carriers

Characterisation of Ta-based barrier films on SiLK for Cu-metalisation

Structures with Ta, TaxN1-x, Ta90C10, Ta95Si5 on SiLK were tested using in-situ 4- point probe resistance measurements during annealing up to 400oC. The change in normalized resistance by a factor of up to 2.58 was attributed to oxygen diffusion out of SiLK layer into the barriers. No direct chemical reaction between hydrocarbons from the SiLK and the barriers was observed. The concentration coefficient of resistivity for O in Ta was calculated to be 6.7μΩ*cm/at % for pure Ta and 2.65 μΩ*cm/at % in TaxN1-x with x=0.90-0.9

Strain characterization of FinFETs using Raman spectroscopy

Metal induced strain in the channel region of silicon (Si) fin-field effect transistor (FinFET) devices has been characterized using Raman spectroscopy. The strain originates from the difference in thermal expansion coefficient of Si and titanium-nitride. The Raman map of the device region is used to determine strain in the channel after preparing the device with the focused ion beam milling. Using the Raman peak shift relative to that of relaxed Si, compressive strain values up to – 0.88% have been obtained for a 5 nm wide silicon fin. The strain is found to increase with reducing fin width though it scales less than previously reported results from holographic interferometry. In addition, finite-element method (FEM) simulations have been utilized to analyze the amount of strain generated after thermal processing. It is shown that obtained FEM simulated strain values are in good agreement with the calculated strain values obtained from Raman spectroscop