Rapid thermal nitridation of SiO2 for nitroxide thin dielectrics

Abstract

Nitroxide thin films have been grown by rapid thermal nitridation of oxidized silicon in ammonia. The kinetics of formation of the surface and interface nitrogen-rich layers has been investigated and correlated to the electrical behavior of these films. It could be concluded that rapid thermal nitridation of ≊100 Å SiO2 results in negative shift of flatband voltage, slightly increases the surface state density, increases the low-field conductivity, reduces the high-field conductivity, improves the dielectric breakdown field, modifies the trapping behavior of the insulator, and slows down the generation rate of new surface states due to high-field electrical stress.