Title :
Low-temperature growth (400°C) of high-integrity thin silicon-oxynitride films by microwave-excited high-density Kr-O2-NH3 plasma
Author :
Ohtsubo, Kazuo ; Saito, Yuji ; Hirayama, Masaki ; Sugawa, Shigetoshi ; Aharoni, Herzl ; Ohmi, Tadahiro
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Electron. Eng., Tohoku Univ., Sendai, Japan
Abstract :
A drastic reduction of the growth temperature of oxynitride (SiON) films, which are usually grown around 1000°C, is realized by using a microwave-excited high-density Kr-O2-NH3 plasma system, which enables their growth at 400°C. It is shown that the addition of only a minute amount of nitrogen (0.5% NH3 partial pressure) into a growing SiO2 film, in this system, results in a significant improvements in the performance of both thick (7nm) films, which operate in the Fowler-Nordheim tunneling regime, and thin (3 nm) films which operate in the direct tunneling regime.
Keywords :
MIS structures; dielectric thin films; insulating thin films; low-temperature techniques; plasma density; plasma deposition; silicon compounds; tunnelling; 3 nm; 400 degC; 7 nm; Fowler-Nordheim tunneling; KrO2NH3; SiON; high-integrity thin silicon-oxynitride films; low-temperature growth; microwave-excited high-density plasma; thick films; Insulation; Oxidation; Plasma applications; Plasma devices; Plasma properties; Plasma temperature; Semiconductor films; Silicon; Substrates; Tunneling; Microwave; plasma; silicon dioxide; silicon oxynitride;
Journal_Title :
Plasma Science, IEEE Transactions on
DOI :
10.1109/TPS.2004.833385
