Silicon nitride film formed by NH3 plasma-enhanced thermal nitridation

Recently, with the rapid development of VLSI microelectronics, the device dimension is reduced to micron and submicron range. The thickness of the dielectric film is reduced to 10 nm. The very thin SiO2 often shows high leakage current, low breakdown voltage, poor capability of resisting the penetration of impurities, and instable physical properties. It is one of the important subjects of semiconductor microelectronics technology to improve the properties of the SiO2 used in fabrication of VLSI devices. In this work, an NH3 plasma enhanced thermal nitridation (NPTN) technique is investigated to improve the quality of thin dielectric films.