Thin fluorinated gate dielectrics grown by rapid thermal processing in O/sub 2/ with diluted NF/sub 3/

The authors report the application of rapid thermal processing (RTP) to the fabrication of ultrathin ( approximately 10 nm) high-quality fluorinated oxides in O/sub 2/+NF/sub 3/ (100 ppm diluted in N/sub 2/). NF/sub 3/ was used as the F source gas and was introduced either prior to rapid thermal oxidation (RTO) or with O/sub 2/ during the initial stage of RTO. The oxidation rate was enhanced because of the presence of NF/sub 3/. In addition, F depth profiles in fluorinated oxides were dependent upon the process conditions. The electrical characteristics of MOS capacitors have been studied and correlated with the chemical properties. The initial interface state density (D/sub t/) was found to decrease with F incorporation. The results suggest that the interfacial F incorporation plays a major role in determining the interface hardness for both hot-electron and radiation damages.<
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