Direct measurement of topography-dependent charging of patterned oxide/semiconductor structures

Upadhyaya, G. S.; Shohet, J. L.; Krüger, J.

doi:10.1063/1.2805023

Cited by 17 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…9 To illustrate how the patterned structures charge up in the plasma and how the Kelvin-probe system is able to resolve the charging of individual dice on the surface of the wafer, the entire patterned wafer without cleaving was exposed to a dc N 2 plasma discharge at 60 mTorr. Surprisingly, no measurable change in the surface potential was observed for an unpatterned wafer after plasma exposure.…”

Section: A Plasma-induced Charging Of Patterned Structuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These are (i) plasma nonuniformities, 6 (ii) nonuniformities that naturally appear in the patterning of the wafer (topography-dependent charging), 6 and (iii) plasma irradiation. 9 This can lead to the charging of surfaces exposed to the plasma. 8 In particular, during plasma processing of semiconductor wafers with high-aspect-ratio features, differential charging occurs inside a high-aspect-ratio pit or trench due to the differences in the angular distribution of velocities between the ions and electrons reaching the pit bottom from the plasma.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Plasma and vacuum ultraviolet induced charging of SiO2 and HfO2 patterned structures

Lauer

Upadhyaya

Sinha

et al. 2011

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

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Characterization of atomic layer deposition HfO2, Al2O3, and plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition Si3N4 as metal-insulator-metal capacitor dielectric for GaAs HBT technology J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A 31, 01A134 (2013); 10.1116/1.4769207 In situ study of the atomic layer deposition of HfO2 on Si J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A 30, 01A143 (2012); 10.1116/1.3668080Effect of thermal annealing on charge exchange between oxygen interstitial defects within HfO 2 and oxygendeficient silicon centers within the SiO 2 / Si interface Appl.The authors compare the effects of plasma charging and vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) irradiation on oxidized patterned Si structures with and without atomic-layer-deposited HfO 2 . It was found that, unlike planar oxidized Si wafers, oxidized patterned Si wafers charge up significantly after exposure in an electron-cyclotron resonance plasma. The charging is dependent on the aspect ratio of the patterned structures. This is attributed to electron and/or ion shading during plasma exposure. The addition of a 10 nm thick HfO 2 layer deposited on top of the oxidized silicon structures increases the photoemission yield during VUV irradiation, resulting in more trapped positive charge compared to patterns without the HfO 2 dielectric.

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Section: A Plasma-induced Charging Of Patterned Structuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plasma and vacuum ultraviolet induced charging of SiO2 and HfO2 patterned structures

Lauer

Upadhyaya

Sinha

et al. 2011

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

Self Cite

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“…5,6 The effects of VUV/UV on fixed trapped electrons are known. 7,8 In this paper, we report the effect of VUV and UV irradiation on mobile charges in low-k organosilicate glass ͑SiCOH͒. The mobile charges move under the influence of electric fields.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Effect of vacuum ultraviolet and ultraviolet irradiation on mobile charges in the bandgap of low-k-porous organosilicate dielectrics

Sinha¹,

Nichols²,

Sehgal³

et al. 2011

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

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Capacitance-voltage ͑C-V͒ measurements are used to determine the effect of vacuum ultraviolet ͑VUV͒ and ultraviolet irradiation on mobile charges in porous low-k organosilicate ͑SiCOH͒ dielectrics. Hysteresis in the C-V characteristics shows that VUV irradiation increases the number of mobile charges in the dielectric. This is because VUV photons excite the trapped electrons from defect states to make them mobile carriers. Conversely UV reverses this effect by reducing the mobile charges through photoemission of free electrons and repopulation of trap states. Thus UV irradiation can be used to improve the electrical properties of plasma-processed dielectrics that are subjected to VUV irradiation.

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“…VUV radiation has been found to introduce photoconductive effects [16,17] that governs the density and location of trapped charge within the dielectric [18,19,20]. In addition, trapped charge generated by VUV irradiation of low-k dielectrics has been shown to adversely affect the capacitance [21], breakdown voltage [22], and leakage currents [23,24] without any chemical or structural change in low-k organosilicate glass (SiCOH).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Damage to low-k porous organosilicate glass from vacuum-ultraviolet irradiation

Shohet

Sinha

et al. 2011

SPIE Proceedings

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We investigate the effects of VUV and UV radiation on a number of low-k dielectric films. Two different systems were used to investigate the effects: (1) a synchrotron radiation system as a pure VUV radiation source, and (2) an electron-cyclotron resonance (ECR) plasma system as a plasma source (VUV plus ions). Using the synchrotron-radiation system, we find VUV causes trapped charge accumulation within low-k dielectric films by electron depopulation from the defect states. For organosilicate glass (SiCOH) , the defect states were located 1 eV above the valence band of the dielectric. A model was developed to calculate in-situ charge accumulation. Trapped charges can be depleted with UV-lamp exposure. We examined the use of different energy barriers between layers so that less charge will be accumulated. Using the ECR plasma system, the photon effects can be separated from charged particle effects using a capillary-array window to cover the low-k dielectric films so that only photons from plasma can reach the dielectric. Photon fluence from the plasma can be predicted with a model and measured with a VUV monochromator. Photons from the plasma were shown to be responsible for trapped-charge accumulation within the dielectric, while it was found that ions bombardment results primarily on charge on the surface of the dielectrics.

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Direct measurement of topography-dependent charging of patterned oxide/semiconductor structures

Cited by 17 publications

References 18 publications

Plasma and vacuum ultraviolet induced charging of SiO2 and HfO2 patterned structures

Plasma and vacuum ultraviolet induced charging of SiO2 and HfO2 patterned structures

Effect of vacuum ultraviolet and ultraviolet irradiation on mobile charges in the bandgap of low-k-porous organosilicate dielectrics

Damage to low-k porous organosilicate glass from vacuum-ultraviolet irradiation

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