Low interface trap density in rapid thermally annealed Al/SiNx:H/InP metal–insulator–semiconductor devices

Abstract

A minimum interface trap density of 10 12 eV Ϫ1 cm Ϫ2 was obtained on SiN x :H/InP metalinsulator-semiconductor structures without InP surface passivation. The SiN x :H gate insulator was obtained by the electron cyclotron resonance plasma method. This insulator was deposited in a single vacuum run and was composed of two layers with different nitrogen-to-silicon ratios. The first layer deposited onto the InP was grown with a nitrogen-to-silicon ratio of N/Siϭ1.55, whereas the second one was grown with a N/Si ratio of N/Siϭ1.43. After the insulator deposition, rapid thermal annealing of the devices was performed at a constant annealing time of 30 s. The interface trap density minimum value was obtained at an optimum annealing temperature of 500°C. Higher annealing temperatures promote thermal degradation of the interface and a sharp increase in the trap density. © 1999 American Institute of Physics. ͓S0003-6951͑99͒02007-0͔There is considerable interest in InP-based field-effect transistor technology ͓both metal-semiconductor field-effect transistors ͑MESFET͒ and metal-insulator-semiconductor field-effect transistor ͑MISFET͔͒ due to its high electron mobility and saturated electron drift velocity. However, there are two main limiting factors of device performance: the low Schottky barrier height on InP ͑MESFET͒ and the high surface state density at the insulator-InP interface ͑MISFET͒.

Influence of electron cyclotron resonance nitrogen plasma exposure on the electrical characteristics of SiNx:H/InP structures

“…The influence of RTA treatments on unexposed InP MIS devices has already been analyzed and the results can be found elsewhere. [16][17][18] As it is well known, the compounds formed with a group-V element and an N atom ͑N-group-V bonds͒ are volatile. In fact, it has been widely described in the literature that thermal desorption of these bonds takes place at temperatures ranging between 330 and 530°C.…”

“…To avoid phosphorous depletion, we have not made experiences at higher temperatures. 15 In some samples, rapid thermal annealing ͑RTA͒ treatments [16][17][18] have also been performed after SiN x :H deposition to elucidate the mechanism responsible for the N 2 plasma effects. The RTA treatment was performed in a flux of Ar at atmospheric pressure.…”

Characterization of nitrogen-rich silicon nitride films grown by the electron cyclotron resonance plasma technique

“…Films with N/Si ratios greater than 1.33 show good interface properties when used in silicon based MIS devices [18,21]. Additionally, nitrogen-rich films have been found to passivate the phosphorus vacancies in InP based MIS structures, allowing good interface properties without the deposition of an interface control layer [22,23,24].In this paper, the influence of gas flow ratio, deposition temperature and microwave power on the properties of ECR deposited N-rich SiN x :H films will be analyzed in detail. The films have been characterized by Rutherford back-scattering spectrometry (RBS), elastic recoil detection analysis (ERDA), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and ellipsometric analysis.…”

Rapid thermal annealing effects on the structural properties and density of defects in SiO2 and SiNx:H films deposited by electron cyclotron resonance

“…1 Different approaches have been developed to combine the properties of SiO 2 and SiN x :H, such as stacked oxide-nitride-oxide ͑ONO͒ structures, 2 nitrided silicon oxide films, 3 or compound silicon oxinitride films 1,4 Additionally, research is being devoted to the application of SiN x :H as the gate dielectric in III-V based metal-insulator -semiconductor field effect transistors ͑MISFETs͒. 5,6 The requirements of ultralarge scale integration ͑ULSI͒ technology have stimulated the development of low thermal budget processes for the deposition of device quality SiO 2 and SiN x :H. Plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition ͑PECVD͒ techniques are of great interest as they make use of a plasma for the generation of active precursor species which allows the deposition of the films at low temperatures. In particular, the electron cyclotron resonance ͑ECR͒ technique shows some interesting features in addition to the low thermal budget requirement.…”