Ion Beam Mixing for Silicide Formation

Refractory metal silcides are under intensive investigation to be used as contact and interconnect materials in VLSI circuits. Ion beam mixing has been proposed as a technique for simultaneous doping and metal silicide formution. This work presents a theoretical model for calculating the different parameters required for ion beam mixing through ion implantation. The minimum ion beam energy and dose for complete mixing is calculated. A plot of the obtained energy-dose relation shows that the dose increases linearly with energy. The dose-silicide thickness relation is also plotted. It is found that the thickness of the formed metal silicide increases linearly with the square root of the applied dose. A good agreement is found between the values and relations of the proposed model and experimental results.