Random Telegraph Noise in 1X-nm CMOS Silicide Contacts and a Method to Extract Trap Density

The behavior of random telegraph noise was affected by nickel silicide barrier height engineering in advanced nano-CMOS technologies. Contact resistance fluctuations with magnitude of up to 40% were observed when a Schottky barrier was reduced to 0.2 eV. The large contact resistance instability is attributed to the barrier modification by positive charge trapping and detrapping in a Schottky contact. The prevalence and magnitude of the noise are dependent on the contact area, trap density, trap energy, and the silicide Schottky barrier height. In this letter, we propose a fast method to extract the density of responsible contact traps.