Plasma-Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition of Silicon Nitride

Abstract

The optimum condition of plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition to deposite silicon nitride (SiN x ) film and its application as a gate insulator of a-Si thin-film transistor (TFT) have been investigated. The internal stress of SiN x in the range of 4.3×109 dyn/cm2 tensile to 8.0×109 dyn/cm2 compressive is found to be controllable by changing the ratio of H2 and N2 in the source gases without affecting the optical band gap. Satisfactory TFT characteristics and high reliability are realized by using a gate insulator of SiN x having either stoichiometric or N-rich composition which shows the large optical band gap.

Control of Buffer-Induced Current Collapse in AlGaN/GaN HEMTs Using SiNx Deposition

“…The change to diffusivity of ions through this SiNx blocking layer is a plausible cause and is a concept well understood from Si technologies [23]. It is known that a change in growth conditions modifies the growth morphology and internal stress of the SiNx layer [24,25,10], the stoichiometric Si3N4 will have less voids and therefore will have the highest ion blocking ability. It would then be in various high temperature processing steps such as the Ohmic anneal or further SiNx deposition that ion diffusion could occur.…”

Investigation of structural properties of high‐rate deposited SiNx films prepared at low temperatures (100–300 °C) by atmospheric‐pressure plasma CVD

“…Figure 5 shows the T sub dependences of the Si-N, N-H and Si-H bond densities of the SiN x films prepared with SiH 4 , NH 3 and H 2 concentrations of 0.05, 1 and 1%, respectively (NH 3 /SiH 4 = 20). As clearly observed in the figure, lowering T sub causes the decrease in Si-N bond density and the increase in H incorporation in the film, indicating that the film quality is deteriorated with lowering T sub .…”

“…Thus, SiN x films have been extensively used in advanced semiconductor technologies as gate dielectric layers in amorphous silicon thin film transistors [1][2][3] and in metal-insulator-semiconductor devices [4,5], protection and passivation layers for various devices [6,7], charge storage layers in non-volatile memories [8], and masks for local oxidation of silicon used in complementary metal-oxidesemiconductor device fabrication [9]. To improve the device yield and reduce the production cost of such devices, the deposition of a uniform SiN x film over a large area with high rates must be achieved.…”

“…Silane (SiH 4 ) and ammonia (NH 3 ) are commonly used as source gases in the temperature range of 200-400 °C. In conventional PECVD processes, although the deposition rate increases with increasing power density and/or gas pressure, the film properties tend to deteriorate due to the introduction of pinholes and electrically active defects [10,11], which are mainly caused by energetic ions in the plasma.…”

Effect of Hydrogen Content and Bonding Environment on Mechanical Properties of Hydrogenated Silicon Films Deposited by High-Frequency PECVD Process

“…Nanoindentation technique is commonly used to measure the micromechanical properties such as hardness, elastic modulus and creep of thin films [2][3][4][5]. Measurement of intrinsic stress of films is also important as excessive tensile stress may cause cracking, while excessive compressive stress may cause peeling of the deposited thin films [6] which limits their applications for various devices. The formation of intrinsic stress in these films mainly depends on the deposition process and parameters being used.…”