45-nm node NiSi FUSI on nitrided oxide bulk CMOS fabricated by a novel integration process

Bulk CMOS transistors with NiSi fully silicided gate electrodes (FUSI) on plasma nitrided oxide gate dielectric are fabricated by a novel integration method using CoSi
₂
as Ni barrier layer on active regions. Performance improvements of 15% (NMOS) and 31% (PMOS) are demonstrated over poly gate electrode transistors at 35 nm gate length. FUSI impact on gate leakage, inversion oxide thickness, V
_T
variation, and gate oxide reliability are compared to poly gate devices. Dopant modulation of NiSi FUSI gate electrode work-function are studied