Thermal stability of cobalt silicide stripes on Si (001)

The effect of lateral scaling on the thermal stability of cobalt disilicide has been investigated on Si (001) substrates. Resistance measurements on four terminal resistors, with linewidth dimensions ranging from 1.3 to 0.5 mu m, have been performed after annealing in the range between 900 and 1000 degrees C. The resistance increases faster in the stripes than in blanket regions. This degradation process has been correlated to the morphological change in the strip cross section, as analyzed by transmission electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy. Grain growth, degradation processes at the line edge, and surface and interface roughness have been observed. These analyses show that the lateral constraints of the silicide lines are mainly responsible for the lowering of the silicide thermal stability compared with blanket regions. Moreover, from measurements of agglomerated silicide grains in equilibrium with the substrate, the silicide surface free energy is 2.3 times the free energy of the CoSi2/Si interface. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-8979(99)04918-X].