An investigation of electrical current induced phase transformations in the NiPtSi/polysilicon system

Abstract

We studied phase transformations and microstructural changes of NiPtSi/polysilicon fuses programmed with three different current densities (under, optimal, and over programming). Electromigration of NiPt toward the anode occurred in all three cases studied. Achieving high resistance after the fuse programming strongly depends on the kinetics of the electromigration and dopant diffusion processes which operate during the fuse blow. A thick silicide region was formed after electrically programmable fuse programming by the reaction of the electromigrated NiPt with the polysilicon layer underneath. The low tails of the underprogrammed fuses seemed to result from the incomplete electromigration and the incomplete dopant depletion due to the insufficient programming current density, while the depletion of the implanted dopants due to the sufficiently elevated temperature seemed to make the postresistance of the optimally programmed fuse higher. In the overprogrammed fuse, the newly formed silicide seemed to have further electromigrated due to the sufficiently high temperature during programming, which caused voids and hillocks. The high temperature caused melting of the polysilicon and the surrounding nitride layer, and their reaction as well. The conduction paths created by the unremoved silicide in fuse link caused the postprogramming resistance of the overprogrammed fuse to be low. © 2008 American Institute of Physics.