Nickel film alloyed with platinum was widely used to improve the stability of nickel silicide. However, an unintended oxidation of Ni(Pt) silicide happened at a low annealing temperature (< 300 degrees C). When the wet HF pre-silicide clean process was replaced by an in situ remote plasma clean (RPC), the silicide oxidation can be efficiently suppressed. The higher F at the interface of TiN capping layer and Ni rich silicide with RPC is considered to be the root cause. This observation demonstrates the importance of surface preparation before silicide formation and provides another possible solution to address the oxidation issue of Ni(Pt) silicide. (C) 2010 The Electrochemical Society. [DOI: 10.1149/1.3511755] All rights reserved.