Improvement of water-related hot-carrier reliability by using ECR plasma-SiO/sub 2/

Water-related hot-carrier degradation is reduced by using ECR plasma-SiO/sub 2/ as the water-blocking layer under the water-containing films such as SOG or TEOS-O/sub 3/. A water-blocking mechanism is proposed, based upon the reaction between Si-H bonds and H/sub 2/O in ECR-SiO/sub 2/ film. Hot-carrier degradation is reduced as SiH/sub 4//O/sub 2/ gas flow ratios (/spl alpha/) are increased during ECR-SiO/sub 2/ deposition. Degradation does not occur when /spl alpha//spl ges/0.69. The Si-H bond concentration in ECR-SiO/sub 2/ film increases as /spl alpha/ increases. In water-containing SOG film covered with ECR-SiO/sub 2/, the amount of petrology desorbed increases as /spl alpha/ increases, while the amount of water desorbed decreases. These results confirm that the water-blocking ability of ECR-SiO/sub 2/ is caused by water decomposition resulting from the reaction between Si-H bonds and H-O in ECR-SiO/sub 2/.<
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