Pre-treatment for salicide process

Abstract

A method for treating a silicon substrate is described. The silicon substrate is placed into a sputtering equipment. A sputtering step is performed to simultaneously dry clean and amorphize the silicon substrate surface by using the sputtering equipment. A titanium film is deposited on the silicon substrate by the sputtering equipment.

What is claimed is:  
     
         1 . A method for treating a silicon substrate, comprising: 
 placing the silicon substrate into a sputtering equipment unit;    performing a sputtering step to simultaneously dry clean and amorphize the silicon substrate surface by first using the sputtering equipment unit; and    depositing a titanium film on the silicon substrate by second using the sputtering equipment unit.    
     
     
         2 . The method of    claim 1   , wherein the titanium film is deposited at about 540°C.  
     
     
         3 . The method of    claim 1   , wherein the sputtering equipment unit is an ionized metal plasma (IMP) equipment unit.  
     
     
         4 . A method for treating a silicon substrate having a surface, comprising: 
 providing a pre-processing chamber, wherein the pre-processing chamber has first and second power supplies for sputtering argon therein, wherein the first power supply can provide the argon with a first bias, and the second power supply can provide the silicon substrate with a second bias;    placing the silicon substrate into the pre-processing chamber;    providing the first bias to the argon;    providing the second bias to the silicon substrate; and    modifying the first bias and the second bias to sputter the argon to simultaneously dry clean and amorphize the substrate surface.    
     
     
         5 . The method of    claim 4   , wherein the first bias is about 250 W to about 450 W.  
     
     
         6 . The method of    claim 4   , wherein the second bias is about 150 W to about 300 W.  
     
     
         7 . The method of    claim 4   , wherein the pre-processing chamber is a chamber in an ionized metal plasma (IMP) equipment unit.  
     
     
         8 . The method of    claim 4   , further comprising the step of depositing a metal film on the substrate after the substrate surface is amorphized.  
     
     
         9 . The method of    claim 8   , wherein the metal film is deposited in the preprocessing chamber.  
     
     
         10 . The method of    claim 8   , wherein the metal film is made of titanium (Ti).  
     
     
         11 . The method of    claim 8   , wherein the metal film is made of cobalt (Co).  
     
     
         12 . The method of    claim 10    wherein the metal film is deposited by TiCl 4 -based CVD.