Furnace annealing effects in the formation of titanium silicide Schottky barriers

In this paper we report the results of different experiments for the formation of titanium silicide -silicon interface by furnace annealing. The experiments have been performed with the final aim to implement a robust production process for the formation of titanium silicide Schottky barrier diodes (SBDs). Titanium silicide formation takes place by mean of the diffusion of the silicon atoms across the Ti/Si interface, activated by the annealing process. Depending on the annealing process temperature, the gases introduced in the annealing chamber form some agglomerates on the top of the Ti layer with different chemical and physical composition. This leads to different final results due to the formation of different types of suicides. The samples have been analyzed with different characterization techniques. Four point probe sheet resistance and stress measurements have been performed to understand the silicide formation mechanism and the applicability of the process to more complex structures. Some SEM and XPS analysis have been performed to verify the uniformity of the film. The Schottky Barrier Height (SBH) of the devices has been calculated by I-V measurements.