Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 February 2011
We report the use of nickel-platinum silicide (NiPtSi) as a source/drain (S/D) material for strain engineering in P-MOSFETs to improve drive current performance. The material and electrical characteristics of NiPtSi with various Pt concentrations was investigated and compared with those of NiSi. Ni0.95Pt0.05Si was selected for device integration. A 0.18 μm gate length P-MOSFET achieved a 22% gain in IDsat when Ni0.95Pt0.05Si S/D is employed instead of NiSi S/D. The enhancement is attributed to strain modification effects related to the nickel-platinum silicidation process.