Metal-germanium physical vapor deposition for semiconductor device defect reduction
AssigneeTexas Instruments Incorporated
InventorsDoufeng Yue, Noel Russell, Peijun J. Chen, Douglas E. Mercer
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The present invention provides a method of manufacturing a metal silicide electrode (100) for a semiconductor device (110). The method comprises depositing by physical vapor deposition, germanium atoms (120) and transition metal atoms (130) to form a metal-germanium alloy layer (140) on a semiconductor substrate (150). The metal-germanium alloy layer and the semiconductor substrate are reacted to form a metal silicide electrode. Other aspects of the present invention include a method of manufacturing an integrated circuit (400).
Claims10
A method of manufacturing an integrated circuit, comprising:
- forming metal silicide electrodes for a semiconductor device in a siliciding process, comprising:
- co-depositing by physical vapor deposition, germanium atoms and transition metal atoms to form a metal-germanium layer on exposed surface areas comprising silicon of a semiconductor substrate;
- and
- thermally reacting the metal-germanium layer and the exposed surface areas of said semiconductor substrate to form a metal silicide electrodes;
- and
- forming interconnect metals lines on one of more insulating layers located over the semiconductor device and connecting the interconnects with the metal silicide electrodes.
A method of manufacturing an integrated circuit, comprising:
- providing a semiconductor device including a semiconductor substrate comprising silicon;
- a well region of first conductivity type formed in a semiconductor substrate;
- isolation regions formed in the semiconductor substrate bounding the well region;
- a gate formed over the well region;
- sidewalls formed on sides of the gate;
- and source/drain regions of opposite second conductivity type formed in the well region adjacent the sidewalls;
- co-depositing germanium atoms and nickel atoms to form a nickel germanium layer over the source/drain regions, the sidewalls and the gate in a sputtering process using a nickel germanium target having less than 10 atom percent germanium;
- performing a thermal process to react the nickel germanium layer with at least one of the source/drain regions and the gate to form nickel silicide electrodes;
- removing unreacted portions of the nickel germanium layer following forming the nickel silicide electrode;
- and
- forming interconnect metal lines on one or more insulating layers located over the semiconductor device and connecting the interconnects with the nickel silicide electrodes.
In a method of manufacturing an integrated circuit including forming metal silicide electrodes for a semiconductor device in a siliciding process comprising depositing a layer of material comprising a transition metal over exposed surface areas comprising silicon of at least one of source/drain regions or a gate formed in or on a semiconductor substrate, thermally reacting the transition metal with the silicon to form metal silicide electrodes, and forming interconnect metals lines on one of more insulating layers located over said semiconductor device and connecting said interconnects with said metal silicide electrodes, the improvement comprising:
- depositing the layer of material comprising the transition metal by co-depositing by physical vapor deposition, germanium atoms and atoms of the transition metal to form a metal-germanium layer on the exposed surface areas;
- and
- thermally reacting the metal-germanium layer and the silicon of the exposed surface areas to form the metal silicide electrodes.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.