AVS 53rd International Symposium
    Electronic Materials and Processing Thursday Sessions
       Session EM-ThP

Paper EM-ThP44
Dependence of the Nitrogen Depth Profile on Annealing In HfSiON/SiON/Si(001) Ultrathin Films

Thursday, November 16, 2006, 5:30 pm, Room 3rd Floor Lobby

Session: Electronic Materials and Processing Poster Session
Presenter: A. Herrera-Gomez, University of Texas at Dallas and CINVESTAV-Queretaro, Mexico
Authors: A. Herrera-Gomez, University of Texas at Dallas and CINVESTAV-Queretaro, Mexico
F.S. Aguirre-Tostado, University of Texas at Dallas
G. Pant, University of Texas at Dallas
M.A. Quevedo-Lopez, SEMATECH
P.D. Kirsch, SEMATECH
B.E. Gnade, University of Texas at Dallas
R.M. Wallace, University of Texas at Dallas
Correspondent: Click to Email
The chemical depth profile of nitrided hafnium silicate dielectric films has been the subject of many studies. Properties such as channel peak mobility and crystallinity depend on the distribution of the nitrogen content. The stoichiometry of hafnium silicate films deposited on a thin layer of silicon oxide was studied with angle resolved x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (ARXPS). Through a self consistent analysis it was possible to determine the influence of rapid thermal annealing on the compositional depth profile of the film. Upon nitridation, the nitrogen was distributed throughout the films. However, after rapid thermal annealing the N left the hafnium oxide layer and diffused into the underlying silicon oxide layer. Also discussed are important issues regarding the extraction of quantitative information from ARXPS data, such as a proper characterization of the beam shape and analyzer focus area.