Tg. Ference et al., The combined effects of deuterium anneals and deuterated barrier-nitride processing on hot-electron degradation in MOSFET's, IEEE DEVICE, 46(4), 1999, pp. 747-753
This paper describes the combined effects of deuterium anneals and deuterat
ed barrier-nitride processing on hot-electron degradation in MOSFET's. Devi
ces subjected to a 60-min, 400 degrees C, 10% deuterium/90% nitrogen anneal
after silicidization show a 32x improvement in hot-electron lifetime. Thes
e same devices are then passivated with a deuterated barrier-nitride layer
formed using deuterated ammonia (ND3) and conventional silane (SiH4). Furth
er deuterium anneals along with conventional contact and metal-level proces
ses are used to integrate the devices. Hot-electron stressing and SIMS anal
ysis performed at various points in the processing give insight to methods
of retaining the beneficial effects of deuterium during subsequent thermal
processing.