Title :
Furnace nitridation of thermal SiO/sub 2/ in pure N/sub 2/O ambient for ULSI MOS applications
Author :
Ahn, J. ; Ting, W. ; Kwong, Dim-Lee
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Texas Univ., Austin, TX, USA
Abstract :
Furnace nitridation of thermal SiO/sub 2/ in pure N/sub 2/O ambient for MOS gate dielectric application is presented. N/sub 2/O-nitrided thermal SiO/sub 2/ shows much tighter distribution in time-dependent dielectric breakdown (TDDB) characteristics than thermal oxide. MOSFETs with gate dielectric prepared by this method show improved initial performance and enhanced device reliability compared to those with thermal gate oxide. These improvements are attributed to the incorporation of a small amount of nitrogen ( approximately 1.5 at.%) at the Si-SiO/sub 2/ interface without introducing H-related species during N/sub 2/O nitridation.<>
Keywords :
CMOS integrated circuits; MOS integrated circuits; VLSI; dielectric thin films; electric breakdown of solids; integrated circuit technology; nitridation; silicon compounds; MOS gate dielectric application; MOSFETs; Si-SiO/sub 2/ interface; SiNo; ULSI MOS applications; device reliability; furnace nitridation; pure N/sub 2/O ambient; thermal SiO/sub 2/; time-dependent dielectric breakdown; twin well CMOS; Dielectric breakdown; Electrons; Furnaces; Interface states; Nitrogen; Oxidation; Rapid thermal processing; Temperature control; Thickness control; Ultra large scale integration;
Journal_Title :
Electron Device Letters, IEEE
