Nickel-Silicide:Carbon Contact Technology for N-Channel MOSFETs With Silicon–Carbon Source/Drain

To explore the potential of nickel-silicide:carbon (NiSi:C) as contact technology for MOSFETs with silicon-carbon (Si:C) source/drain (S/D) regions, we examined the effects of incorporating 1.0 at.% of carbon in Si prior to nickel silicidation. The addition of carbon was found to improve the morphological and phase stability of NiSi:C contacts. This is possibly due to the presence of carbon at the NiSi:C grain boundaries and NiSi:C/Si interface, which will modify the grain-boundary and interfacial energies. This will influence the kinetics of NiSi:C silicidation. In this letter, we have also demonstrated the first integration of NiSi:C contacts in MOSFETs with Si:C S/D regions. We further show that NiSi:C silicidation suppresses the formation of active deep-level defects, leading to superior n⁺/p junction characteristics.