Novel oxynitridation technology for highly reliable thin dielectrics

Abstract

A new oxynitridation technology is introduced. The oxynitride gate dielectric was grown in light wet ambient by diluting NH/sub 3/ gas in N/sub 2/O using a low pressure furnace. The oxide growth rate could be enhanced by this technique. The electrical properties of the oxide were improved by hardening of both SiO2 bulk and Si/SiO2 interface with in-situ post N/sub 2/O annealing. This technology is very promising for gate dielectrics in next generation DRAM and Flash EEPROM devices.