A study of structural, electrical, and optical properties of low-pressure chemical vapor deposition tungsten silicide films processed at elevated temperatures

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Abstract
Tungsten silicide films deposited by the low-pressure chemical vapor deposition technique on polysilicon are studied at elevated processing temperatures. It is shown that annealing of as-deposited silicon-rich tungsten silicide films in nitrogen at process temperatures exceeding 1000 °C results in severe silicide surface morphology. Silicide capping using a layer of dielectric is shown to be attractive to circumvent this problem and to avoid silicide peeloff. Structural, electrical, and optical properties of tungsten silicide films are studied as a function of annealing parameters. It is shown that silicide annealing ambient and activation temperature result in a considerable modification of silicide thin-film properties. Correlation among structural, electrical, and optical silicide film properties is made based on extensive experimental data.