Base oxide scaling limit of thermally-enhanced remote plasma nitridation (TE-RPN) process for ultra-thin gate dielectric formation

Abstract

We investigate the scaling limit of base oxides treated by thermally-enhanced remote plasma nitridation (TE-RPN) for ultra-thin gate dielectric formation. Under optimized RPN conditions, this work shows gate-dielectric equivalent thickness (EOT) scalability and no transconductance degradation are characteristic of processes with base oxide thickness down to 17 /spl Aring/. Thinner base oxides result in reduced EOT scalability and transconductance degradation, resulting in /spl sim/14 /spl Aring/ manufacturable EOT limit for TE-RPN gate dielectrics.