Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 February 2011
The formation of Ni germanosilicides during solid-state interaction between Ni and heavily B-doped strained epitaxial Si1-xGex films with x=0.18, 0.32 and 0.37 is studied. No NiSi2 is found in these samples even after annealing at 850 °C, which can be compared to the formation of NiSi2 at 750 °C on Si(100). Resistance and diffraction studies for the Si0.82Ge0.18 sample indicate that NiSi0.82Ge0.18 forms and the NiSi0.82Ge0.18/Si0.82Ge0.18 structure is stable from 400 to 700 °C. For the NiSi1-uGeu formed in all Si1-xGex samples, where u can be different from x, a strong film texturing is observed. When the Ge fraction is increased from 18 at.% to 32–37 at.%, the morphological stability of the film is degraded and a substantial increase in sheet resistance occurs already at 600 °C. The contact resistivity for the NiSi0.8Ge0.2/Si0.8Ge0.2 interface formed at 550 °C is determined as 1.2×10-7 Ωcm2, which satisfies the RS contact resistivity requirement for the 70 nm technology node.