Title :
Effects of N/sub 2/O anneal and reoxidation on thermal oxide characteristics
Author :
Liu, Zhihong ; Wann, Hsing-jen ; Ko, Ping K. ; Hu, Chenming ; Cheng, Yiu Chung
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Electr. Eng. & Comput. Sci., California Univ., Berkeley, CA, USA
Abstract :
The effects of post-oxidation N/sub 2/O anneal on conventional thermal oxide are studied. The oxide thickness increase resulting from N/sub 2/O anneal is found to be self-limiting and insensitive to initial oxide thickness, which makes the thickness of the resulting oxide easy to control. The N/sub 2/O anneal leads to increased resistance against injection-induced interface-state generation and to reduced hole trapping. No further quality improvement is found when the N/sub 2/O-annealed oxide is subject to an additional reoxidation. This finding confirms that nitrogen incorporation in the absence of hydrogen is responsible for improving the quality of the conventional oxides.<>
Keywords :
hole traps; interface electron states; metal-insulator-semiconductor devices; nitridation; oxidation; silicon compounds; MOS capacitors; N/sub 2/O anneal; Si-SiO/sub 2/; SiO/sub x/N/sub y/; hole trapping; injection-induced interface-state generation; nitridation; oxide thickness increase; reoxidation; thermal oxide characteristics; Annealing; Capacitance measurement; Furnaces; Hydrogen; Kinetic theory; Nitrogen; Oxidation; Rapid thermal processing; Temperature; Thickness control;
Journal_Title :
Electron Device Letters, IEEE
