A direct measurement of interfacial contact resistance

A method is described for directly measuring interfacial contact resistance and estimating the degree of uniformity of the interfacial layer in metal-semiconductor contacts. A two-dimensional resistor network model is used to obtain a relationship between the specific contact resistance and the measured interfacial contact resistance for contacts with a homogeneous interfacial layer. Measurement results are given for 98.5% Al/1.5% Si and 100 % Al contacts on n-type silicon.