Ni and Ni(Pt) suicides have been used as a crucial part of ultra-high speed CMOS technologies. Nisi has many advantages to be a suitable candidate to self-align contact for ULSI devices. The Ni(Pt) suicide present all good NiSi characteristics and also the improved thermal stability. This paper investigates the agglomeration formation on Ni and Ni(Pt) silicides thin films and its material compositions. The samples were characterized by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) with an Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS). NiSi exhibited high surface precipitate formation around 600°C, and Ni(Pt)Si low precipitate formations up to 820°C and film degradations at annealing temperatures around 900°C. EDS analysis revealed the composition of the agglomerations of NiSi films as consisted of Si and Ni, being the Si the major constitutive element of the agglomerates in 600°C films and Ni of the agglomerates in 820°C films. The agglomerations of Ni(Pt)Si films formed at 900°C are consisted of Si, Ni and Pt, with Si and Ni(Pt) in large quantities characterizing the agglomerations as Ni(Pt) silicide. Moreover, EDS spectra taken in the region out of agglomerations show a very high quantities of Si against a low quantities of Ni and Pt, indicating high degradation of the film with less Ni(Pt) silicide layer on Si. © 2006 The Electrochemical Society.41443451J.H.Sim, H.C. Wen, J.P. Lu, and D.L Kwong, Dual Work Function Metal Gate Using Full Nickel Silicidation Of Doped Poly-Si., IEEE Electron Device Letters,Vol24, No10, October, 2003Deng, F., Johnson, R.A., Asbeck, P.M., Law, S.S., Dubbelday, W.B., Hsiao, T., Woo, J., Salicidation process using NiSi and its device applications (1997) J. Appl. Phys, 81, p. 8047Zhang, S.L., Lavoie, C., Cabral Jr., C., Harper, J.M., d'Heurle, F.M., Jordan-Sweet, J., In situ characterization of titanium silicide formation: The effect of Mo interlayer, temperature ramp-rate, and annealing atmosphere (1999) J. Appl. Phys, 85, p. 2617Taur, Y., Davari, B., Moy, D., Sun, J.Y., Ting, C.Y., Study of contact and shallow junction characteristics in submicron CMOS with self-aligned Titanium Silicide (1987) IBM J. RES. Develo, 31 (6), p. 627Poon, M.C., Ho, C.H., Deng, F., Lau, S.S., Wong, H., Thermal stability of cobalt and nickel silicides (1998) Microelectron. Reliab, 38, p. 1495Morimoto, T., Ohguro, T., Momose, H.S., Iinuma, T., Kunishima, I., Suguro, K., Katakabe, I., Iwai, H., Self-aligned nickel mono-silicide technology for high speed deep submicrometer logic CMOS ULSI (1995) IEEE Trans. Electron Devices, 42, p. 915Liu, J.F., Chen, H.B., Feng, J.Y., Zhu, I., Improvement of the thermal stability of NiSi films by using a thin Pt interlayer (2000) Appl. Phys. Lett, 77 (14), p. 2177Lee, P.S., Pey, K.L., Mangelinck, D., Ding, J., Chi, D.Z., Chan, L., New salicidation technology with Ni(Pt) alloy for MOSFETs (2001) IEEE Electron Device Letters, 22 (12), p. 568Xu, D.-X., Das, S.R., Peters, C.J., Erickson, L.E., Materials aspects of nickel silicide for ULSI applications (1998) Thin Solid Films, 326, p. 143Julius, B.A., Knoesen, D., Pretorius, R., Adams, D., A study of the NiSi to NiSi2 transition in the Ni-Si binary system (1999) Thin Solid Films, 347, p. 201d'Heurle, F.M., Nucleation of a new phase from the interaction of two adjacent phases', some silicides (1998) J. Mater. Res, 3, p. 167Mangelinck, D., Dai, J.Y., Pan, J.S., Lahari, S.K., Enhancement of thermal stability of NiSi films on (100) Si and (111) Si by Pt addition (1999) Appl. Phys. Lett, 75 (12), p. 1736Liu, J.F., Feng, J.Y., Zhu, J., Comparison of the thermal stability of NiSi films in Ni/Pt?(111)Si and Ni/Pt/(100)Si systems (2001) J. Appl. Phys, 90 (2), p. 745