Novel technique to engineer aluminum profile at nickel-silicide/Silicon:Carbon interface for contact resistance reduction, and integration in strained N-MOSFETs with silicon-carbon stressors

We report a new technique of achieving reduced nickel silicide contact resistance in strained n-FETs, where a pre-silicide Aluminum (Al) implant was introduced, and the Al profile was controlled/engineered by Carbon (C). C suppresses Al diffusion during silicidation, hence retaining high concentration of Al within the NiSi. Incorporating Al within NiSi reduces the Schottky barrier height for n-Si:C contact, leading to 18 % I_On improvement for Si:C S/D nFETs with no compromise on short channel effects.