Growth and characterization of ultrathin nitrided silicon oxide films

Abstract

This paper reviews recent progress in understanding microstructural and growth-mechanistic aspects of ultrathin (<4 nm) oxynitride films for gate dielectric applications. Different techniques for characterizing these films are summarized. We discuss several nitridation methods, including thermal (oxy)nitridation in NO, N <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</inf> O, and N <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</inf> as well as a variety of deposition methods. We show that a basic understanding of the gas-phase and thin-film oxygen and nitrogen incorporation chemistries facilitates the processing of layered oxynitride nanostructures with desirable electrical properties.