Method for reducing silicide defects in integrated circuits
First Claim
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1. A method for forming a transistor in an integrated circuit (IC) comprising:
- providing a substrate having a gate on the substrate, the gate having gate sidewalls, and diffusion regions in the substrate adjacent to the gate;
forming dielectric spacers on the gate sidewalls;
forming metal silicide contacts over the diffusion regions, wherein portions of the metal silicide contacts are covered by the spacers; and
pulling back the dielectric spacers to reduce stress on the metal silicide contacts.
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Abstract
A method for forming silicide contacts in integrated circuits (ICs) is described. A spacer pull-back etch is performed during the salicidation process to reduce the stress between the spacer and source/drain silicide contact at the spacer undercut. This prevents the propagation of surface defects into the substrate, thereby minimizing the occurrence of silicide pipe defects. The spacer pull-back etch can be performed after a first annealing step to form the silicide contacts.
13 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method for forming a transistor in an integrated circuit (IC) comprising:
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providing a substrate having a gate on the substrate, the gate having gate sidewalls, and diffusion regions in the substrate adjacent to the gate; forming dielectric spacers on the gate sidewalls; forming metal silicide contacts over the diffusion regions, wherein portions of the metal silicide contacts are covered by the spacers; and pulling back the dielectric spacers to reduce stress on the metal silicide contacts. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A method for reducing metal pipes comprising:
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providing a feature on a substrate; forming dielectric spacers on sidewalls of the feature; forming metal silicide contacts on the substrate adjacent to the dielectric spacers, wherein portions of the metal silicide contacts are covered by the spacers; and pulling back the dielectric spacers to reduce stress on the metal silicide contacts. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification