Interfacial properties of ultrathin pure silicon nitride formed by remote plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition

This article addresses the electrical properties of interfaces between n- and p-type Si and remote plasma-deposited Si3N4, which are of interest in aggressively scaled advanced CMOSFETs. The nitride films of this article display excellent electrical properties when implemented into stacked oxide/nitride dielectrics in both NMOSFETs and PMOSFETs with oxide, or nitrided oxide interfaces. The same nitride layers deposited directly onto clean Si surfaces display degraded electrical properties with respect to devices with oxide, or nitrided oxide interfaces. PMOS interfaces are significantly more degraded than n-type metal-oxide semiconductors interfaces indicating a relatively high density of donor-like interface traps that inhibit channel formation. (C) 1999 American Vacuum Society. [S0734-211X(99)04904-5].