Formation of high quality storage capacitor dielectrics by in-situ rapid thermal reoxidation of Si/sub 3/N/sub 4/ films in N/sub 2/O ambient

This letter reports on a novel reoxidation technique for SiO/sub 2//Si/sub 3/N/sub 4/ (ON) stacked films by using N/sub 2/O as oxidant. Effect of in-situ rapid thermal N/sub 2/O reoxidation (RTNO) on the electrical characteristics of thin ON stacked films are studied and compared with those of in-situ rapid thermal. O/sub 2/ reoxidation (RTO). Prior to reoxidation, the Si/sub 3/N/sub 4/ film was deposited by rapid thermal chemical vapor deposition (RT-CVD) using SiH/sub 4/ and NH/sub 3/. Results show that RTNO of the Si/sub 3/N/sub 4/ films significantly improves electrical characteristics of ON stacked films in terms of lower leakage current, suppressed charge trapping, reduced defect density and improved time-dependent-dielectric-breakdown (TDDB), as compared to RTO of the Si/sub 3/N/sub 4/ films.<>