Crystalline grain size of nickel-platinum silicide films and their impact on device characteristics

The recently developed partial-conversion (PC) process was examined for the fabrication of a nickel-platinum silicide film. The PC process can drastically improve the SRAM standby current characteristics. The underlying mechanism was also investigated with respect to the crystalline structure and it was confirmed that the improvement was due to a reduction of the crystalline grain size of the silicide by the PC process.