Silicide-to-silicon specific contact resistance characterization

The performance of Si integrated circuits depends on the transistor drive current. The drive current of a MOS transistor is determined by the total device resistance, which consists of the channel resistance and the parasitic resistances associated with dopant diffusion areas and contacts. It is expected that the contact resistance between silicide and source/drain regions will significantly contribute to the total series resistance. The reduction of this contact resistance and the corresponding specific contact resistance is an important issue. Thus the ability to accurately obtain the specific silicide-to-silicon contact resistance is essential for contact processing. It therefore requires dedicated test structures and a reliable extraction method of this specific contact resistance.