Electrical and reliability characteristics of ultrathin oxynitride gate dielectric prepared by rapid thermal processing in N/sub 2/O

Author

Hwang, H. ; Ting, W. ; Kwong, D.-L. ; Lee, J.

Author_Institution

Microelectron. Res. Center, Texas Univ., Austin, TX, USA

fYear

1990

fDate

9-12 Dec. 1990

Firstpage

421

Lastpage

424

Abstract

The electrical and physical characteristics of oxynitride grown in N/sub 2/O gas ambient have been studied. The dielectric growth rate in N/sub 2/O was found to be highly controllable and lower than that in O/sub 2/. Auger electron spectroscopy studies of oxynitride show a nitrogen-rich layer near the Si-SiO/sub 2/ interface. Compared with the control oxide, the oxynitride shows excellent electrical characteristics such as excellent diffusion barrier to dopant (BF/sub 2/), a significant reduction in interface state generation, less electron trapping, and much larger charge-to-breakdown under Fowler-Nordheim stress. A significantly lower threshold voltage shift and degradation of subthreshold swing under hot electron stress were also observed. These improvements can be explained by the nitrogen incorporation at Si-SiO/sub 2/ interface. This new oxynitride shows good promise for future ULSI application.<>

Keywords

Auger effect; CVD coatings; annealing; dielectric thin films; electric breakdown of solids; electron traps; hot carriers; interface electron states; metal-insulator-semiconductor structures; reliability; semiconductor-insulator boundaries; silicon compounds; Auger electron spectroscopy; Fowler-Nordheim stress; MOS capacitor; N/sub 2/O gas ambient; Si-SiO/sub 2/ interface; SiNO; ULSI application; charge-to-breakdown; dielectric growth rate; dopant diffusion barrier; electrical characteristics; electron trapping; hot electron stress; interface state generation; physical characteristics; rapid thermal processing; reliability characteristics; subthreshold swing; threshold voltage shift; ultrathin oxynitride gate dielectric; Character generation; Degradation; Dielectrics; Electric variables; Electron traps; Interface states; Nitrogen; Spectroscopy; Stress control; Threshold voltage;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Electron Devices Meeting, 1990. IEDM '90. Technical Digest., International

Conference_Location

San Francisco, CA, USA

ISSN

0163-1918

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IEDM.1990.237142

Filename

237142