Integrated plasma treatment and nickel deposition and tool for performing same

Abstract

A method of manufacturing a MOSFET semiconductor device comprises providing a gate electrode having first and second opposing sidewalls over a substrate having source/drain regions; providing a gate oxide between the gate electrode and the substrate; forming first and second sidewall spacers respectively disposed adjacent the first and second sidewalls; implanting nitrogen into the sidewall spacers; forming a nickel layer; and forming nickel suicide layers disposed on the source/drain regions and the gate electrode. The nickel silicide layers are formed during a rapid thermal anneal at temperatures from about 380 to 600° C. The nitrogen implantation process is a plasma treating in a plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition chamber, and the nickel deposition is performed in a physical deposition chamber. Also, the implantation process and the formation of the nickel layer are sequentially performed without removal from a non-oxidizing atmosphere. An implantation and deposition system for performing portions of this process is also disclosed.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.