Modeling vacancy injection from the silicon/silicon-nitride interface

Vacancy injection is known to occur from the silicon/silicon-nitride interface under conditions of thermal nitridation and during anneal in inert or oxidizing ambients in the presence of a pre-deposited silicon nitride film. We present a semi-empirical model for the injection flux. We suggest that there are two components to the injection: a rapidly decaying component that is proportional to the growth rate of the nitride film and a slowly decaying component that continues after the film thickness has saturated. Both fluxes involve diffusion of the silicon cation into the nitride film but silicon diffusion is the rate limiting step only in the case of the second component.