Nickel silicide is considered the best candidate material to achieve the lowest contact resistance in sub 45 nm CMOS devices. NiSi films with thickness 20–60 nm were prepared by rapid thermal annealing of Ni (temperature 230 °C–780 °C) on top of thin 230 nm silicon-on-insulator substrates, with a constant formation ratio. Based on film independent characterizations, a novel model for the interpretation of spectroscopic ellipsometry data, featuring a combination of two Lorentzian oscillators and one Drude dispersion model, is proposed, and its goodness is checked in comparison to other known models. This new approach is proved to deliver more accurate estimation of the film thickness and resistivity.
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