Thermal stability of silicide contacts on GaAs using the proximity technique during rapid thermal annealing

The proximity technique (face-to-face) has been used for annealing of WSi 0.6 and TiSi 2 contacts on GaAs. This technique eliminates the need for encapsulation of GaAs or As overpressure. The contacts were stable up to an annealing temperature of 900 degrees C with little degradation of electrical properties. The Richardson constant decreased sharply at high annealing temperature which may have been due to creation of defects at the interface.