Effect of Hydrogen Plasma Treatment on Atomic Layer Deposited Silicon Nitride Film

Abstract

Changes in the thin film properties of SiNx deposited via atomic layer deposition using remote N2 plasma were investigated based on the frequency of adding a hydrogen (H2) plasma treatment step during the process. The deposition rate decreased from 0.36 to 0.32 A/cycle when compared to SiNx deposited through the conventional deposition process for a thin film that was subjected to H2 treatment processes every 10th cycle, every 5th cycle, and every single cycle of SiNx deposition compared to the deposition process without H2 plasma at a temperature of 400°C. As the hydrogen treatment process increased beyond a 5:1 ratio, the hydrogen content in the thin film increased based on secondary ion mass spectroscopy analysis, and a change in binding energy state was shown via X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The thin film deposited using the hydrogen plasma treatment process at a ratio of 10:1 showed similar characteristics to the SiNx thin film deposited through the conventional atomic layer deposition process and showed excellent etch resistance without an increase in the etch rate. The step coverage characteristics were increased by 16% compared to the deposition process without a H2 plasma treatment process.

Surface Oxidation State Variations and Insulator–Metal Transition Modulations in Vanadium Oxides with Pulsed Hydrogen Plasma

“…Different from traditional plasma‐treatment processes, the PHP processes may help with the flexible and feasible controlling of the surface layers, which had been widely exploited in the ALD processes for many desired nanostructures at the atomic‐layer scale. [ 22,23,38,39 ] Meanwhile, the reactive H + and H atoms in the hydrogen plasma might reduce oxidation state of metal ions on the surfaces and even bulks of metal oxides, which made metal atoms with a low valence or oxidation state as described elsewhere. [ 17,40–42 ] First, we checked the role of PHP in the reduction of high oxidation state (i.e., V +5 ) of vanadium in the V 2 O 5 thin films.…”

Enhancement of Conformality of Silicon Nitride Thin Films by ABC‐Type Atomic Layer Deposition

“…Especially, recent studies have indicated that intentionally reducing the GPC in deposition processes can enhance step coverage over HAR substrates. [24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31] Silicon nitride (SiN x ) thin films have garnered significant interest in various applications owing to their exceptional mechanical, electrical, and chemical properties. Particularly, SiN x is critically used for various components in electronic devices, such as etchstop layers, gate dielectrics, stress liners, and charge-trapping layers.…”