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US 6,661,067 B1Granted
Nitrogen-plasma treatment for reduced nickel silicide bridging
AssigneeAdvanced Micro Devices, Inc.
InventorsMinh Van Ngo, Christy Mei-Chu Woo, Paul R. Besser, Robert A. Huertas
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Bridging between nickel suicide layers on a gate electrode and source/drain regions along silicon nitride sidewall spacers is prevented by treating the exposed surfaces of the silicon nitride sidewall spacers with a nitrogen plasma to create a surface region having reduced free silicon. Embodiments include treating the silicon nitride sidewall spacers with a nitrogen plasma to reduce the refractive index of the surface region to less than about 1.95.
Claims5
A semiconductor device comprising:
- a gate electrode, having opposing side surfaces and an upper surface, on a semiconductor substrate with a gate insulating layer therebetween;
- silicon nitride sidewall spacers on the opposing side surfaces of the gate electrode;
- a layer of nickel silicide on the upper surface of the gate electrode;
- and
- a layer of nickel silicide on the substrate surface adjacent each silicon nitride sidewall spacer;
- wherein, each silicon nitride sidewall spacer comprises a surface region having a refractive index less than about 1.95 while the remainder of the silicon nitride sidewall spacer has a refractive index of about 1.98 to about 2.02.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.