Oxidation resistance of TaSiN diffusion barriers

Due to his resistance to oxidation, TaSiN is a promising candidate as an el ectric conductive barrier layer for integration of ferroelectrics and high permittivity oxides in advanced memory devices. Here we report on the prope rties and the resistance to oxidation of TaSiN thin films deposited by reac tive sputtering using a TaSi2 target and then processed by rapid thermal an nealing (RTA) in O-18(2) at 650 degreesC. We use RES (Rutherford Backscatte ring Spectroscopy) and NRA (Nuclear Reaction Analysis) to determine film co mpositions and XRD (X-Ray Diffraction) to study their microstructure. The c oncentration depth profiles of O-18 was measured after the RTA treatments v ia the narrow resonances O-18(p,alpha)N-15 at 151 keV (fwhm=100eV). The rel ationship between the depth profiles and the excitation curves were deduced with the aid of the SPACES simulation program.