Effects of size and shape of lateral confinement on the formation of NiSi₂, CoSi₂, and TiSi₂ on silicon inside miniature size oxide openings

The effects of size and shape of lateral confinement on the formation of NiSi₂, CoSi₂ and TiSi₂ on silicon inside miniature size oxide openings have been investigated. Epitaxial growth of NiSi₂ of single orientation on (111)Si was found to occur at a temperature as low as 400 °C inside both contact holes and linear openings of 0.3 μm or smaller in size. Contact holes were found to be more effective in inducing the epitaxial growth of NiSi₂ of single orientation than that of linear openings of the same size. The effects of size and shape of lateral confinement on the epitaxial growth of NiSi₂ on (111)Si are correlated with the stress level inside oxide openings. The faceting of CoSi₂ was found to occur at a lower temperature inside oxide openings of smaller size. C49-C54 TiSi₂ transformation was observed to be more difficult on both blank and BF₂⁺ implanted (001)Si inside smaller size oxide openings.