Abstract
Silicon oxynitride (SiON) has emerged as a better gate dielectric material to replace ultra-thin gate SiO2 in scaled down metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) devices. The present study investigates the leakage current in SiON grown by a plasma-based process. Thin films of SiON (6nm) were grown on Si substrates by nitriding rapid thermally grown SiO2 layers in a low-energy, microwave excited nitrogen plasma and by subsequent re-oxidation; and the resulting films were characterized in Al/SiON/p-Si MOS structures under atmospheric, vacuum and low temperature conditions. The analysis of the current-voltage (I-V) characteristics obtained under atmospheric conditions shows an enhanced leakage current in the pre-Fowler-Nordheim region of 4∼8MV/cm oxide field range. However, I-V characterization in vacuum showed the complete removal of this additional current component. This current was found to be not due to a charging/capacitive effect. It is speculated that this additional mid-oxide-field leakage current could possibly be due to a conducting pathway given rise to by interaction of atmospheric gases/water molecules with the plasma induced defects on the oxynitride film.
| Original language | English |
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| Pages | 1084-1087 |
| Number of pages | 4 |
| Publication status | Published - 2003 |
| Event | Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Properties and Applications of Dielectric Materials - Nagoya, Japan Duration: Jun 1 2003 → Jun 5 2003 |
Other
| Other | Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Properties and Applications of Dielectric Materials |
|---|---|
| Country/Territory | Japan |
| City | Nagoya |
| Period | 6/1/03 → 6/5/03 |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
- Condensed Matter Physics
- Materials Chemistry