Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Comp. Ltd.

Hung Pin Lu

Sung-Li Wang

Yu-Ting Lin

Yu-Sheng Wang

Shuen-Shin Liang

Chia-Hung Chu

Cheng-Wei Chang

Hsu-Kai Chang

Yi-Ying Liu

Hung-Chang Hsu

Kuan-Kan Hu

Kao-Feng Lin

Hsiao-Ping Liu

Chuan-Hui Shen

Yuan Wen Lin

A titanium precursor is used to selectively form a titanium silicide (TiSi) layer in a semiconductor device. A plasma-based deposition operation is performed in which the titanium precursor is provided into an opening, and a reactant gas and a plasma are used to cause silicon to diffuse to a top surface of a transistor structure. The diffusion of silicon results in the formation of a silicon-rich surface of the transistor structure, which increases the selectivity of the titanium silicide formation relative to other materials of the semiconductor device. The titanium precursor reacts with the silicon-rich surface to form the titanium silicide layer. The selective titanium silicide layer formation results in the formation of a titanium silicon nitride (TiSiN) on the sidewalls in the opening, which enables a conductive structure such as a metal source/drain contact to be formed in the opening without the addition of another barrier layer.

Conductive structures and methods of formation

A method includes forming an Inter-layer Dielectric (ILD) having a portion at a same level as a metal gate of a transistor. The ILD and the metal gate are parts of a wafer. The ILD is etched to form a contact opening. The wafer is placed into a PVD tool, with a metal target in the PVD tool. The metal target has a first spacing from a magnet over the metal target, and a second spacing from the wafer. A ratio of the first spacing to the second spacing is greater than about 0.02. A metal layer is deposited on the wafer, with the metal layer having a bottom portion in the contact opening, and a sidewall portion in the contact opening. An anneal is performed to react the bottom portion of the metal layer with the source/drain region to form a silicide region.

Methods for forming metal layers in openings and apparatus for forming same

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Hsinchu, Taiwan

Hung Pin Lu