Thermally-enhanced remote plasma nitrided ultrathin (1.65 nm) gate oxide with excellent performances in reduction of leakage current and boron diffusion

Ultrathin thermally enhanced remote plasma nitrided oxides (TE-RPNO) with equivalent oxide thickness down to 1.65 nm are fabricated to investigate their leakage current reduction and boron diffusion barrier performances. A PMOSFET with TE-RPNO, compared to its conventional oxide counter-part, yields almost one order magnitude lower gate leakage current, less flatband voltage changes in high boron implantation dose or activation temperature, and shows broader process windows in the tradeoff between boron penetration and dopant activation.