Measurement of contact resistance distribution using a 4k-contacts array

A new test structure suitable for measuring a contact resistance distribution has been developed. It includes the following two components: a 256 row, 16 column (= 4096) four-terminal cross-contact array; and peripheral circuits, which consist of an eight-stage CMOS binary counter and 256-bit CMOS decoders. It was found that contact resistance can be fitted by a Gaussian distribution for more than three standard deviations of the mean value. The relationship between the contact size and the standard deviation of the contact resistance has been discussed for two types of contacts: Al/TiN/TiSi/sub 2/-n/sup +/Si, and WSi/sub 2//poly-n/sup +/Si. This test structure can simultaneously measure the series resistance of a two-terminal contact chain and the individual contact resistance. By comparing the results of the two measurement modes, it was found that there are three kinds of contact resistance distribution in the chips which have high series resistance of the two-terminal contact chain.