Source/drain area shrinkage using a novel contact and interconnect technology for CMOS application

A novel small source/drain (S/D) contact (SSDC) formation technology has been developed. In the SSDC structure, self-aligned contacts to small S/D regions can be formed without any contact holes, because a local TiSi₂ interconnect on the isolation fields is directly connected with the lining of the S/D regions. In the SSDC process, the local TiSi₂ interconnects were formed from the reaction of a sputter deposited amorphous-Si/Ti bilayer. The local TiSi ₂ interconnect is thermally stable up to 900°C furnace annealing. This self-aligned contact structure combined with TiSi₂ interconnect can realize a small S/D area which can bring about a new multilevel interconnect scheme for 0.5-μm ULSIs