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- a nd p-type Si and remote plasma-deposited Si3N4, which are of interest in ag gressively scaled advanced CMOSFETs. The nitride films of this article disp lay excellent electrical properties when implemented into stacked oxide/nit ride dielectrics in both NMOSFETs and PMOSFETs with oxide, or nitrided oxid e interfaces. The same nitride layers deposited directly onto clean Si surf aces display degraded electrical properties with respect to devices with ox ide, or nitrided oxide interfaces. PMOS interfaces are significantly more d egraded than n-type metal-oxide semiconductors interfaces indicating a rela tively high density of donor-like interface traps that inhibit channel form ation. (C) 1999 American Vacuum Society. [S0734-211X(99)04904-5].