Effect of Annealing Process on the Properties of Ni(55%)Cr(40%)Si(5%) Thin-Film Resistors.

Huan-Yi Cheng,Ying-Chung Chen,Cheng-Fu Yang,Pei-Jou Li,Hong-Hsin Huang

doi:10.3390/ma8105338

Huan-Yi Cheng, Ying-Chung Chen + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/ma8105338

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Abstract

Resistors in integrated circuits (ICs) are implemented using diffused methods fabricated in the base and emitter regions of bipolar transistor or in source/drain regions of CMOS. Deposition of thin films on the wafer surface is another choice to fabricate the thin-film resistors in ICs’ applications. In this study, Ni(55%)Cr(40%)Si(5%) (abbreviated as NiCrSi) in wt % was used as the target and the sputtering method was used to deposit the thin-film resistors on Al2O3 substrates. NiCrSi thin-film resistors with different thicknesses of 30.8 nm~334.7 nm were obtained by controlling deposition time. After deposition, the thin-film resistors were annealed at 400 °C under different durations in N2 atmosphere using the rapid thermal annealing (RTA) process. The sheet resistance of NiCrSi thin-film resistors was measured using the four-point-probe method from 25 °C to 125 °C, then the temperature coefficient of resistance could be obtained. We aim to show that resistivity of NiCrSi thin-film resistors decreased with increasing deposition time (thickness) and the annealing process had apparent effect on the sheet resistance and temperature coefficient of resistance. We also aim to show that the annealed NiCrSi thin-film resistors had a low temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) between 0 ppm/°C and +50 ppm/°C.

Highlights

BiCMOS can provide superior performance for the applications in different circuits
Resistors in integrated circuits (ICs) are implemented using diffused methods fabricated in the base and emitter regions of bipolar transistor or in source/drain regions of CMOS [1,2]
Ni(55%)Cr(40%)Si(5%) in wt % was used as the target because the NiCrSi thin films had the merit of long-term stability [13] and the sputtering method was used to deposit the thin-film resistors on glass substrates

Summary

Introduction

BiCMOS can provide superior performance for the applications in different circuits. the analog functions in BiCMOS require passive circuit components having small temperature coefficients, and the process sequence must be able to accommodate their fabrication.

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Results

Conclusion