Date of Award
1995
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
Abstract
Oxynitride has recently drawn attention as a candidate gate dielectric material for deep sub-micron devices, e.g. MOSFET's. Since the oxide growth rates in pure oxygen are high, efforts to scale down device dimensions with high quality ultrathin ({dollar}<{dollar}100A) SiO{dollar}\sb2{dollar} films are encountering some difficulties. Recently, it has been found that oxynitride films fabricated directly by a N{dollar}\sb2{dollar}O-rapid thermal processing method exhibit improved electrical properties compared to SiO{dollar}\sb2{dollar} films. Structural analysis for such oxynitride films is necessary in order to understand the physical reasons behind the observed improvements.;Nuclear reaction analysis combined with a chemical step-etching method was performed to depth profile nitrogen quantitatively in N{dollar}\sb2{dollar}O-RTP grown oxynitride films. The oxynitride dielectric composition dependence on growth conditions in a rapid thermal processing system was also investigated by nuclear reaction analysis. It is found that most N in the oxynitride films accumulates in a region close to the interface (less than 25 A from the interface in the oxynitride). Both N concentration and film thickness increase with temperature. Furthermore, a UHV initial growth study of oxynitride films on a Si(100) substrate was carried out by nuclear reaction analysis and Auger electron spectroscopy. The results clearly confirm that the nitrogen involvement occurs primarily before an oxynitride film thickness of {dollar}\sim{dollar}25 A is developed, and the subsequent film growth is dominated by oxidation. For the first time, it is found that there is a special growth period at the very beginning during which nitridation (with no simultaneous oxidation) dominates the growth process. It is speculated that the phenomenon results from a competition between reactions of Si with O and N. The dependence of film growth on temperature is such that below 950{dollar}\sp\circ{dollar}C, there is little nitrogen incorporated in the oxide film.
Recommended Citation
Tang, Hongtao, "Compositional Analysis Of Gate Dielectric Films" (1995). Digitized Theses. 2579.
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/digitizedtheses/2579