Characterization and Improvement of Reverse Leakage Current of Shallow Silicided Junction for Sub-100 nm CMOS Technology Utilizing N2 PAI

This paper presents the mechanism of junction leakage current for shallow n+/p junctions using a Co-silicide process. An abnormal leakage current occurred for a perimeter intensive diode. The main cause of the increased leakage current is not the formation of a Schottky junction, but the cobaltsilicide- related traps near the junction. Poole-Frenkel barrier lowering predominantly influenced the reverse leakage current, thereby masking the Schottky contact effect. Reverse leakage current can be reduced by using N2 Pre-Amorphization Ion implantation (PAI) before the Co-silicide process for nano-scale CMOS technology. It was revealed that nitrogen atoms can retard the diffusion of cobalt atoms. KCI Citation Count: 4