Ambient Effect On Ionic Charges in Dielectric Films

The effect of various annealing ambients on the ionic charges contained in the dielectric structures of silicon dioxide-silicon and silicon nitride-silicon dioxide-silicon was investigated. It has been observed that most effective ambients in making ionic species immobile are nitrogen and a mixture of nitrogen and hydrogen chloride gases. Further, silicon nitride used as passivating dielectric films over semiconductor devices has been observed to be an effective barrier for ionic impurities.