Thermal and Microwave Nitrogen Plasma Nitridation Techniques for Ultrathin Gate Insulators of MOS VLSI

Silicon nitrides and nitroxides prepared by direct reaction of NH3 or N-containing species with Si and SiO2 may be better alternatives to thermal SiO2 for MOS applications requiring ultrathin insulators [1i. In this work, nitridation of Si and SiO2 has been performed using thermal nitridation in an RF-heated reactor in NH3, rapid thermal nitridation (RTN) in a lamp-heated system in NH3, and low T (at T ≈ 500 °C or less) nitridation in N2 plasma generated by 2.45 GHZ microwave discharge.