Plasma process induced damage in sputtered TiN metal gate capacitors with ultra-thin nitrided oxide

Author

Chen, C.C. ; Lin, H.C. ; Chang, C.Y. ; Chao, T.S. ; Huang, S.-C. ; Wu, W.E. ; Huang, T.Y. ; Liang, M.S.

Author_Institution

Inst. of Electron., Nat. Chiao Tung Univ., Hsinchu, Taiwan

fYear

2000

fDate

2000

Firstpage

117

Lastpage

120

Abstract

A comprehensive study on plasma process induced damage (P2ID) in sputtered TiN metal-gated devices with 4 nm N₂O-nitrided oxide was performed. It is observed that the post-deposition RTA temperature affects both the flat-band voltage (Vfb) and interface state density (Dit). The TiN metal-gated devices also show a 8 Å reduction in the effective oxide thickness, due to physical damage caused by sputtering and/or oxide consumption during the post annealing step. Finally, degradation in gate oxide integrity caused by severe charging damage during the additional plasma processes in the TiN metal gate process flow is also observed. The P2ID leads to significant degradation in charge-to-breakdown and gate leakage current increase, even for the genuinely robust nitrided oxide used in this study. Finally, N₂ plasma post-treatment is found to be effective in suppressing the gate leakage current

Keywords

MOS capacitors; annealing; interface states; leakage currents; semiconductor device breakdown; silicon compounds; sputter etching; surface charging; titanium compounds; N₂ plasma post-treatment; N₂O-nitrided oxide; SiON; TiN; charge-to-breakdown; effective oxide thickness; flat-band voltage; gate leakage current; gate oxide integrity; interface state density; oxide consumption; plasma process induced damage; plasma processes; post annealing step; post-deposition RTA temperature; process flow; sputtered TiN metal gate capacitors; sputtered TiN metal-gated devices; sputtering; ultra-thin nitrided oxide; Channel bank filters; Degradation; Interface states; Leakage current; Plasma density; Plasma devices; Plasma temperature; Sputtering; Tin; Voltage;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Plasma Process-Induced Damage, 2000 5th International Symposium on

Conference_Location

Santa Clara, CA

Print_ISBN

0-9651577-4-1

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/PPID.2000.870633

Filename

870633