Characterization of ultrathin oxynitride (18-21 angstrom) gate dielectrics by NH3 nitridation and N2O RTA treatment

Abstract

In this paper, we developed a new method to grow robust ultrathin oxynitride (E-OT = 18 Angstrom) film with effective dielectric constant of 7.15. By NH3-nitridation of Si substrate, grown ultrathin Si3N4 with N2O annealing shows excellent electrical properties in terms of significant lower leakage current, very low bulk trap density and trap generation rate, and high endurance in stressing, In addition, this oxynitride film exhibits relatively weak temperature dependence due to a Fowler-Nordheim (FN) tunneling mechanism. This dielectric film appears to be promising for future ultralarge scale integrated (ULSI) devices.