The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Aug. 12, 2003
Filed:
Dec. 06, 2000
Eric N. Paton, Morgan Hill, CA (US);
Ercan Adem, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Jacques J. Bertrand, Capitola, CA (US);
Paul R. Besser, Austin, TX (US);
Matthew S. Buynoski, Palo Alto, CA (US);
John Clayton Foster, Mountain View, CA (US);
Paul L. King, Mountain View, CA (US);
George Jonathan Kluth, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Minh Van Ngo, Fremont, CA (US);
Christy Mei-Chu Woo, Cupertino, CA (US);
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Abstract
A self-aligned silicide process that can accommodate a low thermal budget and form silicide regions of small dimensions in a controlled reaction. In a first temperature treatment, nickel metal or nickel alloy is reacted with a silicon material to form at least one high resistance nickel silicide region. Unreacted nickel is removed. A dielectric layer is then deposited over a high resistance nickel silicide regions. In a second temperature treatment, the at least one high resistance nickel silicide region and dielectric layer are reacted at a prescribed temperature to form at least one low resistance silicide region and process the dielectric layer. Bridging between regions is avoided by the two-step process as silicide growth is controlled, and unreacted nickel between silicide regions is removed after the first temperature treatment. The processing of the high resistance nickel silicide regions and the dielectric layer are conveniently combined into a single temperature treatment.