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US 6,713,392 B1Granted
Nitrogen oxide plasma treatment for reduced nickel silicide bridging
AssigneeAdvanced Micro Devices, Inc.
InventorsMinh Van Ngo, Christy Mei-Chu Woo
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Bridging between nickel silicide 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 oxide 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.
Claims15
A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device, the method comprising:
- forming a silicon gate electrode, having opposing side surfaces, on a substrate with a gate insulating layer therebetween;
- forming silicon nitride sidewall spacers on the opposing side surfaces of the gate electrode leaving exposed adjacent surfaces of the substrate;
- treating the silicon nitride sidewall spacers with a nitrogen oxide plasma;
- depositing a layer of nickel on the gate electrode and exposed surfaces of the substrate;
- and
- heating to react the layer of nickel with underlying silicon to form a layer of nickel silicide on the gate electrode and layers of nickel silicide on the exposed surfaces of the substrate.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.