Electrical characterization of self-aligned titanium silicide SBDs formed by furnace annealing

The control of the Schottky barrier is fundamental to minimize the power loss of Schottky Barrier Diodes (SBDs) and the metal-semiconductor interface properties strongly affect the overall performances of such devices. In this paper we report on the results of different TiSi - based Schottky contacts formation experiments with the aim to produce SBDs using standard furnace annealing. The objective is to implement a robust production process and to obtain a diode capable to operate at high frequencies and power densities for long periods of time, minimizing the reverse power losses. TiSi-based Schottky contacts were formed depositing a Ti layer on n-doped Si wafers; the devices have subsequently been annealed using a standard furnace annealing process to activate the silicide formation. The TiSi layer formation was analyzed by means of Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and sheet resistance measurements; SBDs have been characterized using standard current-voltage (J-V) measurement techniques. The fabricated SBDs show a very low Schottky Barrier Height (SBH) (in accordance with literature) and some barrier inhomogeneities.