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

Paper EM-ThP46
Nitrogen Incorporation in Hf-based High-k Dielectrics Upon Thermal and Plasma Treatments

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

Session: Electronic Materials and Processing Poster Session
Presenter: F.S. Aguirre-Tostado, University of Texas at Dallas
Authors: F.S. Aguirre-Tostado, University of Texas at Dallas
A. Herrera-Gomez, University of Texas at Dallas and Cinvestav-Qro, Mexico
M.J. Kim, University of Texas at Dallas
B.E. Gnade, University of Texas at Dallas
R.M. Wallace, University of Texas at Dallas
M.A. Quevedo-Lopez, Texas Instruments assignee at SEMATECH
P.D. Kirsch, IBM assignee at SEMATECH
Correspondent: Click to Email
Nitridation of SiO@sub 2@ has been demonstrated to increase the dielectric constant allowing for further scaling in conventional CMOS fabrication. The same applies for Hf-based high-k dielectrics such as HfSiO and HfO@sub 2@. For HfO@sub 2@, nitrogen incorporation helps to suppress crystallization after high temperature activation anneals. In this work we systematically study the incorporation of nitrogen in HfSiO and HfO@sub 2@ using plasma assisted nitridation and thermal treatments in ammonia. The nitrogen concentration and chemical interactions are studied using x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, x-ray diffraction, and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. The role of nitrogen on the electrical properties is also discussed.