Electrical and metallurgical investigations of the metallization system: Si/PtSi/V/Al

Schottky-barrier diodes have been fabricated by evaporation of Pt on Si substrates followed by annealing at 500 °C to yield PtSi. Then V and Al were evaporated. The amount of oxygen intentionally incorporated in the V film during deposition was varied and the resulting effect on the diffusion barrier action of the vanadium film has been studied by I-V and C-V measurements of the diodes and by backscattering spectrometry of simultaneously prepared test samples. It is found that for V films with low oxygen concentrations annealing in the range 400–600 °C leads to the formation of VAl3 and subsequent barrier height change. For vanadium films containing 50-at. % oxygen there is no observable reaction between V and Al and the barrier height is preserved for annealing between 400 and 600 °C.