Materials Science and Engineering B 171 (2010) 120–126

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Materials Science and Engineering B

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/mseb

Ti–Ni ohmic contacts on 3C–SiC doped by nitrogen or phosphorus implantation

A.E. Bazin a,b,∗ , J.F. Michaud a , C. Autret-Lambert c , F. Cayrel a , T. Chassagne d ,
M. Portail e , M. Zielinski d , E. Collard b , D. Alquier a
a
Université François Rabelais, Tours, Laboratoire de Microélectronique de Puissance, 16 Rue Pierre et Marie Curie, BP 7155, 37071 Tours Cedex 2, France
b
STMicroelectronics, 16 Rue Pierre et Marie Curie, BP 7155, 37071 Tours Cedex 2, France
c
Université François Rabelais, Tours, Laboratoire d’Electrodynamique des Matériaux Avancés CNRS-CEA-UMR6157, Parc de Grandmont, 37200 Tours, France
d
NOVASiC, Savoie Technolac, Arche Bât 4, BP 267, 73375 Le Bourget du Lac Cedex, France
e
Centre de Recherche sur l’Hétéro-Epitaxie et ses Applications CNRS-UPR10, Rue Bernard Grégory, 06560 Valbonne, France

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: For electronic devices, good ohmic contacts are required. To achieve such contacts, the semiconductor
Received 7 December 2009 layer has to be highly doped. The only method available to locally dope the SiC is to implant dopants
Received in revised form 24 March 2010 in the epilayer through a mask. In this work, non-intentionally doped 3C–SiC epilayers were implanted
Accepted 31 March 2010
using nitrogen or phosphorus at different energies and subsequently annealed at temperatures between
1150 ◦ C and 1350 ◦ C in order to form n+ implanted layers. Different techniques such as Fourier Trans-
Keywords:
formed InfraRed spectroscopy (FTIR), Secondary Ion Mass Spectroscopy (SIMS) and Transmission Electron
Silicon carbide
Microscopy (TEM) were used to characterize implanted 3C–SiC epilayers subsequently to the different
Ion implantation
Annealing
annealing steps. Then, Ti–Ni contacts were carried out and the specific contact resistance (C ) was deter-
Contact resistance mined by using circular Transfer Length Method (c-TLM) patterns. C values were investigated as a
Transmission electron microscopy function of implanted species and contact annealing conditions, and compared to those obtained for
highly doped 3C–SiC epilayers. As expected, C value is highly sensitive to post-implantation anneal-
ing. This work demonstrates that low resistance values can be achieved using nitrogen or phosphorus
implantation at room temperature hence enabling device processing.
© 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction ing is a key process in semiconductor manufacturing. Due to the

Nowadays, silicon carbide is of high interest for high power
and high temperature electronic devices. This growing interest is
due to its attractive mechanical and electrical properties. Accord-
ing to the stacking sequence of the Si–C bilayers, silicon carbide
exists in more than 200 different polytypes. Nevertheless, com-
pared to the various existing structures, the 3C–SiC is the only
one that can be hetero-epitaxially grown on silicon substrates. The
SiC growth capability on low cost and large diameter silicon sub-
strates becomes then a very attractive solution for manufacturing
[1]. Indeed, in such conditions, only the required silicon carbide
thickness has to be grown according to the targeted application.
For such a material, one of the main challenges to overcome is
the achievement of high quality ohmic contacts, both on highly
doped epitaxial or implanted layers depending on process flow, in
order to create efficient electronic devices. For this reason, dop-
∗ Corresponding author at: Université François Rabelais, Tours, Laboratoire de
Microélectronique de Puissance, 16 Rue Pierre et Marie Curie, BP 7155, 37071 Tours
Cedex 2, France. Tel.: +33 2 47 42 40 00; fax: +33 2 47 42 49 70.
E-mail address: anne-elisabeth.bazin@st.com (A.E. Bazin).
low dopant diffusion in this material, ion implantation is the only
method available to obtain localized doped regions. In order to get
n+ doping in 3C–SiC, both nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) implan-
tations were already carried out [2–4]. With classical implanters,
using energies between 150 keV and 200 keV, the implantation
depth for nitrogen atoms is about 300 nm and only 200 nm when
using phosphorus. This step process is responsible for the gen-
eration of defects in the implanted layer due to the collisions
between implanted ions and silicon carbide crystal lattice. To limit
the production of defects in the crystal lattice, the implantation
step is generally completed at elevated temperature [5,6]. How-
ever, even using high temperature implantation, post-implantation
annealing is required to restore the crystal lattice and activate
dopants by a local diffusion in the substitutional lattice sites. Nev-
ertheless, annealing remains a great challenge in 3C–SiC on Si.
In fact, dopant electrical activation generally occurs when reach-
ing high temperature annealing. However, due to the nature of
our substrate, annealing must take place well below the Si melt-
ing point. In this work, we investigate the influence of nitrogen
and phosphorus implantation at room temperature and the associ-
ated post-implantation annealing on specific contact resistance in
3C–SiC grown on Si.

0921-5107/$ – see front matter © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.mseb.2010.03.084
 A.E. Bazin et al. / Materials Science and Engineering B 171 (2010) 120–126 121

Table 1
Energies and doses used to implant 3C−SiC epilayer with nitrogen and phosphorus.

Energy (keV) 20 30 40 50 70 100 150

−2
Phosphorus dose (cm ) – 5 × 10
14
– 1.2 × 1015
– 2.1 × 10
15
4.5 × 1015
Nitrogen dose (cm−2 ) 1 × 1015 – 2 × 1015 – 2.2×1015 3 × 1015 5.4 × 1015

Table 2 formed on an Avatar 370 Thermo Nicolet spectrometer. Spectra

Post-implantation annealing conditions for 3C−SiC
were recorded with a 4 cm−1 resolution on a 700–1100 cm−1 spec-
implanted samples.
tral range in order to follow the evolution of the crystal disorder.
Temperature (◦ C) Duration (h) Secondary Ion Mass Spectroscopy (SIMS) measurements were used
1150 1 to determine dopant concentration and dopant layer homogeneity.
1250 1 The roughness was checked using a Veeco Dimension V AFM. The
1350 1 implanted layers were also analyzed using cross-section Transmis-
1350 2
sion Electron Microscopy (x-TEM) images. A Jeol 2100F was used
1350 4
either in classical observation mode or in High Resolution TEM (HR-
TEM). TEM lamellas were prepared with a FEI Strata 400 using an in
situ lift-out method with a Dual Beam system – Secondary electron
2. Experimental details
microscopy (SEM) and Focused Ion Beam (FIB) – using a standard
FIB procedure.
The 3C–SiC films, used for this study, were hetero-epitaxially
In order to study the quality of ohmic contact on implanted
grown on 2 or 4 diameter (1 0 0) silicon wafers by using a hor-
layers, circular Transfer Length Method (c-TLM) patterns were pre-
izontal resistively heated hot wall CVD reactor [7]. The growth
pared to determine specific contact resistance [12]. This method
was performed using silane (SiH4 ) and propane (C3 H8 ) as precur-
presents a serious advantage over linear TLM structure as mesa iso-
sor gases and purified hydrogen (H2 ) as carrier gas following the
lation is not required. In our structure, the inner c-TLM contact has
classical two stages process defined by Nishino et al. [8], with-
a constant diameter of 160 ␮m while the outer contact diameter
out initial surface de-oxidation. The growth details are reported
changes with the inter-space ranging from 12 ␮m to 48 ␮m. To do
elsewhere [9]. Two types of 7 ␮m thick epilayers with different
so, a 130 nm nickel–20 nm titanium bilayer has been deposited by
n doping levels were grown to carry out the ohmic contacts:
sputtering. Afterward, the samples were subjected to a rapid ther-
a non-intentionally doped (∼6 × 1015 cm−3 ) and a highly doped
mal annealing (RTA) step of 1 min in inert ambient (Ar) at 1000 ◦ C or
(3.5 × 1019 cm−3 ) layers [10]. The 3C–SiC epilayers were then pol-
1050 ◦ C [10]. The so-formed c-TLM structures were used to extract
ished using NOVASiC know-how [11]. Non-intentionally doped
the specific contact resistance (C ) using a Keithley 2400 Sourceme-
samples were then implanted at room temperature with nitrogen
ter as a current source and voltage measurer. On each sample, more
or phosphorus using a commercial implanter (without heating ele-
than 6 c-TLM patterns were measured and a regression method
ment). Implantations were carried out for the multiple energies and
was employed to extract the specific contact resistance values as
their associated doses as presented in Table 1. Various implantation
detailed in [13].
conditions (energies and doses with a 7◦ tilt) have been simulated
through SRIM 2006 to obtain a box-like profile as shown in Fig. 1. For
the nitrogen ions, the maximum depth reached is around 300 nm at 3. Results
150 keV as shown in Fig. 1a. For the same energy, the higher mass
of the phosphorus ions allows a maximum depth around 200 nm Prior to the metal contact deposition, all samples were physi-
as shown in Fig. 1b. Post-implantation annealing, with an argon cally analyzed using the different presented techniques in order to
flow of 1.5 slm at a pressure of 200 mbar, has then been applied to evaluate the impact of the implantation step on the 3C–SiC layers.
activate the implanted ions. The samples were annealed at temper-
atures ranging from 1150 ◦ C to 1350 ◦ C without using a protective 3.1. Physical characterization of 3C–SiC implanted layers
layer. The different conditions of annealing, temperature and dura-
tion, are summarized in Table 2. First, consecutively to the implantation step, the modifications
Different techniques were applied to characterize the mod- of the 3C–SiC layer have been evaluated using FTIR measurements.
ifications of the 3C–SiC properties further to the implantation Fig. 2 presents the obtained FTIR measurements for the non-
step. Fourier Transformed InfraRed (FTIR) measurements were per- intentionally doped epilayer (reference sample), the as-implanted

Fig. 1. Simulated SRIM and SIMS profiles for both (a) nitrogen and (b) phosphorus implanted in 3C−SiC.
122 A.E. Bazin et al. / Materials Science and Engineering B 171 (2010) 120–126
Fig. 2. FTIR measurements for the non-intentionally doped epilayer, the as-implanted sample, the 1250 ◦ C annealed (1 h) and 1350 ◦ C annealed samples (1 h and 4 h) for (a)
nitrogen and (b) phosphorus implantations.
sample, the 1250 ◦ C annealed (1 h) and 1350 ◦ C annealed samples
(1 h and 4 h) for both nitrogen (a) and phosphorus (b) implan-
tations. We observe, in these figures, that the reflectivity in the
700–1100 cm−1 spectral range is drastically modified with respect
to the treatment (implantation and/or annealing). A qualitative
evolution is noticeable between all the spectra considering the
Reststrahlen band (spectra between 794 cm−1 and 973 cm−1 ). This
band corresponds to the interval between the frequencies of trans-
verse optical phonon mode ωTO and longitudinal optical phonon
mode ωLO . Indeed, the decrease of the peak of reflectivity is
attributed to the reduction of the optical phonons lifetime in a dam-
age material [14,15]. For both implanted species, we observe the
same tendency. The 1250 ◦ C and 1350 ◦ C annealing during 1 h tend
to restore the spectral response towards a highly crystalline quality
material. A longer post-implantation treatment at 1350 ◦ C seems
not to be suitable as FTIR spectra presented a degraded plateau of
reflectivity for 2 h (not shown on the figures) and 4 h annealing,
regarding to the 1250 ◦ C and 1350 ◦ C – 1 h discussed previously.
In order to follow the evolution of the nitrogen and phospho-
rus profiles upon annealing, SIMS measurements were performed.
First of all, it is important to mention that the as-implanted phos-
phorus and nitrogen SIMS profile, previously presented in Fig. 1,
corroborates extremely well the SRIM simulated one leading to the
expected box-like profile. The nitrogen and phosphorus concentra-
tion profiles for as-implanted and annealed samples (1 h at 1250 ◦ C
and 1350 ◦ C) are presented in Fig. 3. For both implanted species, all
the profiles lined up. This indicates, as it is usually the case in SiC,
that the dopant diffusion coefficients are extremely low.
The surface quality is a major concern for device fabrication,
even more crucial in the case of SiC where high surface qual-
Fig. 3. SIMS measurements for as-implanted sample, 1250 ◦ C and 1350 ◦ C − 1 h annealed samples for (a) nitrogen and (b) phosphorus.
ity is difficult to achieve. In order to check potential surface
degradation successively to ion implantation step and post-
implantation annealing, AFM measurements were made on the
nitrogen implanted samples. AFM scans (three measurements per
condition) were done on a 20 ␮m × 20 ␮m surface area. These mea-
sures were also made subsequently to the hetero-epitaxy, to the
implantation step and to the high temperature post-implantation
annealing. Fig. 4 summarizes the variations of the RMS roughness
with annealing treatment. The error bars correspond to the stan-
dard deviation of the roughness on each sample. Subsequently to
the epitaxy step, the RMS roughness was evaluated to 0.60 nm. After
nitrogen implantation, the AFM not clearly evidences a difference
with the as-grown value. However, the different annealing steps
seem to have an effect on the roughness. Indeed, we observe a great
increase with both temperature and duration of the annealing. This
points out that the high temperature annealing treatments (above
1250 ◦ C) damage the silicon carbide surface.
Defects may generally affect the electrical quality of a semi-
conductor layer. Ion implantation is known, for decades, to create
disorder in the crystal that might go up to complete amorphization
of a layer [16]. Followed by an annealing stage, implantation almost
inevitably leads to the formation of extended defects that must be
taken into account. In order to check the crystalline quality of the
layer, TEM and HR-TEM images were carried out for both nitrogen
and phosphorus implanted samples.
For nitrogen implantation, the as-implanted, 1 h and 4 h sam-
ples annealed at 1350 ◦ C are presented in Fig. 5. Fig. 5a presents
the bright field x-TEM image of the nitrogen as-implanted sample,
while the insert shows the associated diffraction pattern. The pat-
tern, with both rings and dots, clearly indicates the presence of a
 A.E. Bazin et al. / Materials Science and Engineering B 171 (2010) 120–126 123

zone, and the associated diffraction pattern. The lamella orientation

Fig. 4. AFM measurements for 3C−SiC samples before and after nitrogen implan-
tation step and after the 1150 ◦ C, 1250 ◦ C and 1350 ◦ C annealing step, on
20 ␮m × 20 ␮m scans.
mixed zone containing amorphous and crystalline 3C–SiC. The x-
TEM micrograph evidences an amorphous zone of around 280 nm
starting from the surface. The non-implanted 3C–SiC region con-
tains defects stopped at the amorphous/crystalline (a/c) 3C–SiC
interface. In Fig. 5b, one can observe a bright field x-TEM image
of the 1350 ◦ C – 1 h annealed sample, focused on the implanted
was determined to be [2 2̄ 0]. This diffractogram shows well-aligned
spots that demonstrate the recovered crystallinity of the layer con-
secutively to this post-implantation annealing. Nevertheless, the
presence of diffuse trails between the spots proves the existence of
extended defects in the implanted and annealed zone. The x-TEM
micrograph confirms these observations and reveals the presence
of defects which are arranged in two directions. These extended
defects are exhibiting a V-shape. Their density decreases from the
former a/c interface to the surface of the implanted layer. More-
over, an amorphous layer of 30 nm is still observed directly under
the surface. TEM investigations were also done on samples that
present annealed Ti–Ni contacts (not presented here). This amor-
phous layer fully disappears according to the formation of a silicide
and, hence, may not affect the contact. Fig. 5c is a bright field x-TEM
micrograph of the 1350 ◦ C – 4 h annealed sample. The diffraction
pattern in the insert, with a zone axis of [2 2̄ 0], shows dots and
diffuse trails which are characteristics of a crystalline structure
with defects. On the micrograph, a faulted region with a depth
of around 280 nm is visible. The defects are also arranged in two
directions with V-shape. The amorphous layer observed previously
for the 1350 ◦ C – 1 h annealing is not present anymore. More-
over, STEM images of the lamella done after the thinning down
in the FIB chamber, show an important roughness at the surface
of the implanted 3C–SiC. This roughness between the implanted
3C–SiC and the platinum can be also seen in Fig. 5c and is fully
consistent with AFM observations. Fig. 5d is an HR-TEM image of
the faulted region after the 1350 ◦ C – 4 h annealing. The atomic
columns are displayed with a systematic change of the lattice

Fig. 5. Bright field x-TEM image of: (a) the N-implanted non-annealed 3C−SiC and the corresponding diffraction pattern showing diffuse rings and classical 3C−SiC pattern
of the amorphous (implanted zone) and crystalline (un-implanted zone) layers respectively), (b) the 1350 ◦ C – 1 h N-implanted 3C−SiC and (c) the 1350 ◦ C – 4 h N-implanted
3C–SiC (inset, diffraction patterns of the implanted zone evidencing disordered rearrangement depending on annealing conditions). (d) corresponds to a HR-TEM image of
the atomic disordered arrangement in the N-implanted region of the 1350 ◦ C – 4 h annealed sample.
124 A.E. Bazin et al. / Materials Science and Engineering B 171 (2010) 120–126
Fig. 6. (a) Bright field x-TEM image of the P-implanted 3C−SiC annealed at 1350 ◦ C – 1 h with the respective diffraction patterns in the insert and (b) HR-TEM image of the
atomic arrangement in the P-implanted region.
periodicity. Both defects directions are observed with an angle
of 78◦ .
In the case of phosphorus implantation, only the 1 h annealed
sample is presented hereafter. Fig. 6a is a bright field x-TEM image
of the phosphorus implanted 3C–SiC annealed at 1350 ◦ C dur-
ing 1 h. In the insert, the diffraction pattern of the implanted
lamella is presented. The lamella orientation was determined to
be also [2 2̄ 0]. We can see diffuse trails between the spots, which
correspond to the presence of the faulted zones due to the phos-
phorus implantation. The TEM micrograph indicates a faulted
depth of around 180 nm. This depth corresponds to the plateau
of the doping P-implanted profile. The defects are also arranged
in two directions, with a V-shape, and are denser in the deepest
zone of the implanted layer. These defects and their organization
are extremely similar to those observed in the case of nitrogen
implantation. An amorphous layer of around 10 nm remains close
to the surface. This thin amorphous layer also disappears with
the metal deposition and the subsequent annealing of the con-
tacts (not presented here). On the HR-TEM image, presented in
Fig. 6b, one can observe the SiC atomic columns with a system-
atic change in the periodicity. Both directions of the defects are
also evidenced on this micrograph with an angle of 78◦ once
again.
All these results shed light on the large modifications induced
by ion implantation on the 3C–SiC layers. To complete this study,
the Ti–Ni contacts, using c-TLM patterns, were implemented, while
annealing conditions were chosen from previous work [10].
Fig. 7. Influence of high temperature post-implantation annealing on the specific contact resistance after a contact RTA treatment of 1 min in Ar ambient for (a) N-implanted
samples and (b) P-implanted samples.
3.2. Electrical characterization of the Ti–Ni contacts
First of all, I–V measurements were always performed between
annealed contacts. The I–V characteristics (not presented here)
underlined a perfect ohmic behavior for both implanted species
whatever the temperature and the post-implantation annealing
duration. Furthermore, by using the c-TLM procedure, the specific
contact resistance has been investigated. In Fig. 7, we present the
specific contact resistance as a function of temperature and post-
implantation annealing duration for nitrogen (a) and phosphorus
(b) implanted samples. For each figure, various contact annealing
conditions were also investigated and the two best results are pre-
sented [10].
The post-implantation annealing temperature is a key parame-
ter in order to activate dopants. For both implanted species, the
specific contact resistance value is decreasing when increasing
the temperature. However, due to the silicon substrate melting
temperature, 1350 ◦ C seems to be the maximal acceptable pro-
cessing temperature for the annealing. Another parameter that
has to be considered is the post-implantation annealing dura-
tion. At this temperature, the lowest specific contact resistance
value is obtained for the 1-h annealing step. A longer duration
seems to degrade the specific contact resistance value, especially
for the P-implanted samples. Nevertheless, our work demonstrates
that low specific contact resistance value of 8 × 10−6  cm2 and
2 × 10−5  cm2 are respectively obtained for nitrogen and phos-
phorus implanted samples, annealed 1 h at 1350 ◦ C. With the same
 A.E. Bazin et al. / Materials Science and Engineering B 171 (2010) 120–126
measurement protocol, the specific contact resistance value for the
highly doped 3C–SiC epilayer, used as reference, was evaluated to
1.7 × 10−5  cm2 [17]. Consequently, ion implantation technique
enables to obtain an efficient contact as the one performed on in
situ highly doped 3C–SiC layers. Moreover, Fig. 7 points out that the
discrepancy in specific contact resistance values according to the
contact RTA treatment is cut down. These results provide a wide
process window to carry out the ohmic contacts in future devices.
4. Discussion
In this work, doping of 3C–SiC using nitrogen or phosphorus
implantation followed by a high temperature annealing has been
studied.
According to the implantation energies used, the ion penetra-
tion depth reaches 300 nm with nitrogen and is limited to 200 nm
with phosphorus, due to its higher mass. SIMS measurements
have also evidenced the extremely low diffusion of the implanted
species in 3C–SiC, even subsequently to the high temperature post-
implantation annealing. This tiny diffusion also confirms that ion
implantation is the only available method to locally dope sili-
con carbide layers. AFM, FTIR and x-TEM measurements have also
revealed noticeable results. Using AFM, roughness measurements
have indicated that the surface seems not to be damaged by the
implantation step. However, according to the post-implantation
annealing measurements, the higher the temperature, the larger
the roughness. At 1350 ◦ C, the annealing duration also plays an
important role. The 1350 ◦ C – 4 h annealing severely degrades the
surface. This result has been also confirmed with FTIR measure-
ments, where the reflectivity in the Reststrahlen band is soundly
decreasing for longer annealing at 1350 ◦ C and by x-TEM, both
indicating this surface degradation. The x-TEM analyses have
demonstrated that the lattice is completely disordered after the
implantation step until it becomes amorphous. As a consequence,
the implantation dose used to implant the 3C–SiC layers is above
the amorphization threshold whatever the implanted species. A
post-implantation high temperature annealing is then required to
restore the crystal lattice. A 1350 ◦ C – 1 h annealing partially re-
crystallize the implanted layer but a thin amorphous layer at the top
of the implanted zone remains. However, this thin layer is negligible
according to the penetration depth of the metal contact (not shown
here) annealed at a temperature around 1000 ◦ C. A longer anneal-
ing at 1350 ◦ C permits to re-crystallize completely the implanted
layer but the surface is severely degraded in terms of roughness. As
a consequence, a large increase of annealing time at 1350 ◦ C is not
a suitable solution. The surface degradation for annealing longer
than 1 h seems to be the reason for the decrease of the reflectivity
previously observed with FTIR analysis at this temperature.
The electrical results corroborate the physical characterization.
As expected, the lowest specific contact resistance value is obtained
for the highest implantation annealing temperature: the lowest
value is obtained consequently to a 1350 ◦ C – 1 h annealing what-
ever the implanted species. The presence of a thin amorphous layer
in the implanted zone is not prejudicial probably due to the pene-
tration of the contact resulting to the 1 min RTA step at 1000 ◦ C or
1050 ◦ C used to form a nickel silicide [18,19]. The surface degrada-
tion is not a major concern in term of specific contact resistance.
With nitrogen, the c value is nearly preserved at 1350 ◦ C what-
ever the annealing duration. With phosphorus, this value slightly
increases with the annealing duration at 1350 ◦ C. Nevertheless,
such a surface may not be compatible with further device steps
such as achievement of Schottky contacts.
x-TEM observations have indicated that our implantation con-
ditions lead to an amorphization of the implanted layers. Although
the high temperature annealing is efficient to partially restore the
125
crystal lattice, the layer is faulted subsequently to a 1350 ◦ C – 4 h
annealing. In spite of it, the specific contact resistance is in the
same range than value obtained with in situ highly doped 3C–SiC
epilayers using the same measurement protocol. Improved results
could be expected with 3C–SiC layers implanted with a lower dose,
under the amorphization threshold. In such conditions, the defects
highlighted in the implanted region should be probably reduced.
5. Conclusion
In this paper, 3C–SiC non-intentionally doped samples were
implanted with nitrogen or phosphorus using different dose-
energy couples in order to create a box-like profile, verified by SIMS.
Samples were subsequently furnace annealed between 1150 ◦ C and
1350 ◦ C. Physical characterizations such as FTIR, TEM, AFM, SIMS
and c-TLM measurements were completed to determine the influ-
ence of the post-implantation annealing on 3C–SiC properties and
its consequences on the quality of the Ti–Ni ohmic contacts.
After the implantation step, an amorphization of the 3C–SiC
layer is evidenced by TEM and also enlightened by the degradation
of the Reststrahlen band observed by FTIR for both dopant species.
Even if a post-implantation annealing up to 1350 ◦ C – 4 h is not
efficient for a complete recovering of the 3C–SiC crystalline struc-
ture, interesting specific contact resistance values can be achieved.
This work evidences that a compromise has to be found between
surface roughness, activation of dopants and quality of the 3C–SiC
crystalline structure. Indeed, even if a highly faulted implanted
zone with V-shape defects and a thin amorphous layer under the
surface remained after a 1350 ◦ C – 1 h post-implantation anneal-
ing, the low surface roughness, combined with the formation of a
Ni silicide overlapping the amorphous layer leads to C values of
8 × 10−6  cm2 and 2 × 10−5  cm2 for N- and P-implanted sam-
ples respectively. When increasing the annealing duration up to
4 h, surface roughness becomes a major factor limiting the C value
improvement in spite of a crystalline enhancement. Future inves-
tigations will be done using a carbon capping layer to reduce the
post-implantation annealing surface damages.
Similar behaviors were found for both metal RTA treatments,
offering a large process window. As expected, specific contact resis-
tance value is highly sensitive to post-implantation annealing and
metal annealing conditions. Moreover, we demonstrated that low
resistance value can be achieved for n+ -implanted layers (by nitro-
gen or phosphorus), comparable with those obtained on in situ
highly doped 3C–SiC samples. These promising results are of high
interest to carry out the ohmic contacts in future electronic devices.
Acknowledgments
The authors want to thank J.M. Lecoq (STMicroelectronics,
Tours) for the implantation experiments, X. Song (LMP and STMi-
croelectronics, Tours) for AFM measurements and Ch. Dubois (LPM,
INSA, Lyon) for her support on SIMS measurements.
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