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On the source of scatter in contact resistance data

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Abstract

Previous treatments have assumed that small fluctuations in contact window dimensions between devices are chiefly responsible for the scatter in contact resistance data. Although this is plausible, it is shown in this paper that the source of this scatter is variation in contact resistivity, ρc, from resistor to resistor. It is further suggested that ρc is Cauchy distributed. Since standard deviation is in theory infinite for a Cauchy distribution, very high values of resistance at a contact window would occur with much greater frequency than common sense might suggest.

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Abbreviations

ρ c :

contact resistivity

R :

resistance

T :

wafer thickness

A :

wafer area

ρ B :

bulk resistivity

L :

contact window length

α:

dimensionless contact resistivity, ρc/ρB L

σ :

standard deviation

σR :

standard deviation in resistance

σ l :

standard deviation in contact window length

α ρc :

standard deviation in contact resistivity

N :

number of observations

C(N,m) :

binomial coefficient

f(R) :

probability density ofR

αμ:

parameters of Cauchy distribution

P :

probability

R :

average resistance

References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electronics, Carleton University, Colonel By Drive, K1S 5B6, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

    S. S. Winterton, T. J. Smy & N. G. Tarr

Authors
  1. S. S. Winterton
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  2. T. J. Smy
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  3. N. G. Tarr
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Winterton, S.S., Smy, T.J. & Tarr, N.G. On the source of scatter in contact resistance data. J. Electron. Mater. 21, 917–921 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02665549

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02665549

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