(Invited) Low-Temperature Microwave-Based Plasma Oxidation of Ge and Oxidation of Silicon Followed by Plasma Nitridation

Abstract

In the semiconductor industry Germanium is expected as the promising channel material for future high-mobility CMOS transistors because of its highest hole mobility among common elemental and compound semiconductors, and an electron mobility that is two times larger than that of Si. This article shows that oxides can be grown and/or in a subsequent process step nitridized for planar Ge and Si devices at very low temperatures (T < 460 °C). The stable oxide growth on Germanium through plasma processing is studied as a function of relevant processing parameters like time, gaseous ambient etc. For Silicon the bonding structure of pure and nitridized low-temperature grown SiO2 is analyzed, followed by an electrical characterization of 0.8 to 1.2 nm interfacial layers on Si.

CMOS-compatible manufacturability of sub-15 nm Si/SiO2/Si nanopillars containing single Si nanodots for single electron transistor applications

“…Accordingly, the NP diameter reduction was tested using rapid thermal oxidation at temperatures between 850 • C and 1050 • C. However, a closer look at NPs with an initial diameter of <20 nm by EFTEM showed the dissolution of the existing Si NDs during this treatment, which is attributed to Si ND oxidation 7 . This can be avoided using the microwave-based plasma oxidation technique operating at temperatures <400 • C [61,62]. Plasma oxidation provides oxides of up to ∼8 nm in thickness and high electrical quality [63,64] at reasonable oxidation times of some minutes.…”