Abstract: Air gap insulation regions are formed selectively within high parasitic capacitance regions in which conductive lines are closely proximate and generates an intolerable amount of parasitic capacitance. The selective formation of air gap insulation regions improves circuit performance by reducing the parasitic capacitance and device reliability by reducing the stress fracture problem of conventional air gap insulation schemes.

Abstract: A semiconductor arrangement and method of forming silicide regions includes conformally depositing a reducing material layer on a silicon substrate. A refractory metal layer is then conformally deposited on the reducing material layer. Annealing is then performed to form a refractory metal silicide layer on the silicon substrate. The metal silicide layer is a cobalt silicide and the reducing material layer includes at least one of tantalum, magnesium, aluminum or calcium. The reducing material reduces native oxide on a silicon substrate to allow the cobalt silicide to form.