Color Difference Characterization on Nickel Silicides
We prepared nickel silicide layers from p-Si(l00)/SiO₂(2000 Å)/poly-Si(700 Å)/Ni(400 Å) structures, feasible for gates in MOSFETs, by annealing them from 500℃～900℃ for 30 minutes. We measured the color coordination in visible range, cross sectional micro-structure, and surface topology with annealing temperature by an UV-VIS-IR spectrometer, field effect scanning electron microscope(FE-SEM), and scanning probe micro-scope respectively. We conclude that we may identify the nickel silicide by color difference of 0.90 and predict the silicide process reliability by color coordination measurement. The nickel silicide layers showed similar thickness while the columnar grains size and surface roughness increased as annealing temperature increased.