CIRCUIT ELEMENT HAVING A METAL SILICIDE REGION THERMALLY STABILIZED BY A BARRIER DIFFUSION MATERIAL

摘要

The introduction of a barrier diffusion material, such as nitrogen, into a silicon-containing conductive region, for example the drain and source regions (204, 205) and the gate electrode (208) of a field effect transistor, allows the formation of nickel silicide (211, 212), which is substantially thermally stable up to temperatures of 500 °C. Thus, the device performance may significantly improve as the sheet resistance of nickel silicide is significantly less than that of nickel disilicide.