Title :
Formation of high quality storage capacitor dielectrics by in-situ rapid thermal reoxidation of Si/sub 3/N/sub 4/ films in N/sub 2/O ambient
Author :
Yoon, G.W. ; Lo, G.Q. ; Kim, J. ; Han, L.K. ; Kwong, D.L.
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Texas Univ., Austin, TX, USA
Abstract :
This letter reports on a novel reoxidation technique for SiO/sub 2//Si/sub 3/N/sub 4/ (ON) stacked films by using N/sub 2/O as oxidant. Effect of in-situ rapid thermal N/sub 2/O reoxidation (RTNO) on the electrical characteristics of thin ON stacked films are studied and compared with those of in-situ rapid thermal. O/sub 2/ reoxidation (RTO). Prior to reoxidation, the Si/sub 3/N/sub 4/ film was deposited by rapid thermal chemical vapor deposition (RT-CVD) using SiH/sub 4/ and NH/sub 3/. Results show that RTNO of the Si/sub 3/N/sub 4/ films significantly improves electrical characteristics of ON stacked films in terms of lower leakage current, suppressed charge trapping, reduced defect density and improved time-dependent-dielectric-breakdown (TDDB), as compared to RTO of the Si/sub 3/N/sub 4/ films.<>
Keywords :
DRAM chips; chemical vapour deposition; dielectric thin films; electric breakdown of solids; integrated circuit technology; oxidation; rapid thermal processing; silicon compounds; DRAMs; N/sub 2/O; SiO/sub 2/-Si/sub 3/N/sub 4/; SiO/sub 2//Si/sub 3/N/sub 4/ stacked films; charge trapping; defect density; electrical characteristics; in-situ rapid thermal reoxidation; leakage current; rapid thermal chemical vapor deposition; stacked cell capacitors; storage capacitor dielectrics; time-dependent-dielectric-breakdown; Capacitors; Chemical vapor deposition; Dielectrics; Electric variables; Electrodes; Leakage current; Random access memory; Rapid thermal processing; Semiconductor films; Senior members;
Journal_Title :
Electron Device Letters, IEEE
