TOWARDS AN ATOMIC SCALE UNDERSTANDING OF DEFECTS AND TRAPS IN OXIDE/NITRIDE/OXIDE AND OXYNITRIDE SYSTEMS

摘要

Amorphous dielectrics are key components of silicon devices. Silicon oxide, which has been used as the gate dielectric in MOS devices, is facing a number of challenges for deep sub-micron devices due to its low reliability because of electron and hole capturing, breakdown and boron penetration from poly-silicon. Silicon oxynitride (SiO_sN_y) will probably be used as the gate dielectric in the near future because of its boron blocking capabilities and higher reliability. Traps in SiO_xN_y determine the leakage current, breakdown and reliability. The nature of the traps still remains unclear.