Charge Pumping Profiling Technique for the Evaluation of Plasma-Charging-Enhanced Hot-Carrier Effect in Short-N-Channel Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistors

In this study, TiN/HfO2/Si metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) capacitors were etched by a neutral beam etching technique under two contrasting conditions. The configurations of neutral beam etching technique were specially designed to demonstrate a “damage-free” condition or to approximate “reactive-ion-etching-like” conditions to verify the effect of plasma-induced damage on electrical characteristics of MOS capacitors. The results show that by neutral beam etching (NBE), the interface state density (Dit) and the oxide trapped charge (Qot) were lower than routine plasma etching. Furthermore, the decrease in capacitor size does not lead to an increase in leakage current density, indicating less plasma induced side-wall damage. We present a plasma-induced gate stack damage model which we demonstrate by using these two different etching configurations. These results show that NBE is effective in preventing plasma-induced damage at the high-k/Si interface and on the high-k oxide sidewall and thus improve the electrical performance of the gate structure.

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Neutral beam and ICP etching of HKMG MOS capacitors: Observations and a plasma-induced damage model

Kuo

Shih

et al. 2017

Journal of Applied Physics

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Damage-free metal-oxide-semiconductor gate electrode patterning on thin HfSiON film using neutral beam etching

Noda

Ozaki

Samukawa

2006

Journal of Vacuum Science &Amp; Technology A: Vacuum, Surfaces, and Films

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The charging damage of metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) capacitors and the degradation of HfSiON dielectric films during gate electrode etching were compared with neutral beam etching and conventional plasma etching. Furthermore, residual flux of charged particles (positive/negative ions and electrons) in the neutral beam was analyzed and the relationship between the residual charge flux and the charging damage induced in SiO2 and/or HfSiON gate dielectrics was investigated. Although the residual charge flux and its composition varied depending on the neutral beam acceleration method (dc or rf biasing), the amounts were noticeably lower than that with the plasma etching system. The gate leakage currents of the MOS capacitors etched using the neutral beam were sufficiently lower than those in the plasma etching, which was consistent with the charge flux during the gate electrode etching. On the neutral beam irradiated surface of the HfSiON film, there were no changes in the x-ray photoelectron spectrometry spectra, while large decreases in Hf composition were observed on the plasma-irradiated surface.

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Charge Pumping Profiling Technique for the Evaluation of Plasma-Charging-Enhanced Hot-Carrier Effect in Short-N-Channel Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistors

Cited by 2 publications

References 2 publications

Neutral beam and ICP etching of HKMG MOS capacitors: Observations and a plasma-induced damage model

Neutral beam and ICP etching of HKMG MOS capacitors: Observations and a plasma-induced damage model

Damage-free metal-oxide-semiconductor gate electrode patterning on thin HfSiON film using neutral beam etching

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