Title :
Effects of nitric oxide annealing of thermally grown silicon dioxide characteristics
Author :
Yao, Z.-Q. ; Harrison, H.B. ; Dimitrijev, S. ; Yeow, Y.T.
Author_Institution :
AEA Microelectron Pty Ltd., Sydney, NSW, Australia
Abstract :
The effects of nitric oxide (NO) annealing on conventional thermal oxides are reported in this letter. The oxide thickness increase, resulting from NO annealing, is found to be only a few angstroms (<0.5 nm) and independent on the initial oxide thickness. Furthermore, both the electrical and physical characteristics are improved. This technique is expected to achieve sub-5 nm high quality ultrathin dielectric films for the applications in EEPROM´s and ULSI.<>
Keywords :
EPROM; MOS capacitors; MOS integrated circuits; ULSI; annealing; dielectric thin films; integrated circuit technology; EEPROM; MOS capacitors; NO; SiO/sub 2/; ULSI; electrical characteristics; gate dielectrics; nitric oxide annealing; oxide thickness increase; physical characteristics; thermal oxides; ultrathin dielectric films; Annealing; Australia; Dielectric films; Dielectric measurements; Dielectric substrates; EPROM; Microelectronics; Nitrogen; Refractive index; Silicon compounds;
Journal_Title :
Electron Device Letters, IEEE
