RELIABILITY ISSUES OF FURNACE NITRIDATED OXIDES PREPARED WITH REDUCEDTHERMAL BUDGET IN N2O AMBIENT

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of the thermal budg et on the quality of furnace nitridated SiO2 layers in N2O ambient. Af ter comparing the quality of various oxynitride layers prepared with d ifferent thermal budgets, it is shown that a short nitridation under h igh temperature conditions provides an insulator of similar robustness to that obtained after a lower temperature nitridation during a longe r time. In addition, it will be shown that the quality of the finished oxynitride layer is practically independent of the nature of the init ial SiO2 film (i.e. dry or steam), and is only related to the quantity of nitrogen present at the Si/SiO2 interface. Finally, it is suggeste d that the preparation of a high efficiency, low thermal budget oxynit ride layer is fully feasible, provided that the quantity of nitrogen i ncorporated into the Si/SiO2 system has been properly adjusted. Copyri ght (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd.