A two-dimensional self-aligned silicide (SALICIDE) model has been developed using the general-purpose process simulator OPUS. A new two-dimensional growth model is proposed. Utilizing a newly-difined effective silicide thickness, the model accounts both silicon-diffusion and metal-diffusion limited silicide growth. Silicide lateral-growth along a sidewall spacer is successfully simulated for Si-diffusion limited silicide growth. Complete MOSFET process simulation with a SALICIDE process is demonstrated for the first time.

This paper is concerned with the stress simulation of a LOCOS structure during not only oxidation but also the subsequent cooling down based on viscoelastic stress modeling. A viscoelastic model is successfully applied to the oxide, nitride and silicon substrate for a LOCOS structure. Thermal stress is also taken into account during the cooling down process. The viscoelastic deformation problem of all the three materials for the LOCOS structure are solved by a two-dimensional finite element method. It is the first time to show that the stress values after cooling down to room temperature are much higher than those right after oxidation. It is also shown that varying the cooling down rates results in the different stress values after cooling down.