SiON Gate Dielectric Formation by Rapid Thermal Oxidation of Nitrided Si.

SiON gate dielectric is optimized for general purpose 65 nm node applications by using a first nitridation approach. A process parameter screening is done where the resulting SiON films are analyzed by angle resolved XPS and non-contact probing by Quantox. Good correlation between XPS and Quantox results are found. We demonstrate also correlation between Quantox results and transistor performance. It shows that the first nitridation approach is promising for reducing gate leakage resulting in better off-state current.