Reactive pre-clean using reducing gas during nickel silicide process

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; pre-cleaning the sidewall spacers; forming a nickel layer; and forming nickel silicide 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 pre-clean uses a hydrogen reactive system in an atmosphere comprising hydrogen and helium. Also, the pre-clean and the formation of the nickel layer are sequentially performed in a single physical vapor deposition chamber system.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.