Oxynitiride gate dielectrics prepared by rapid thermal processing using mixtures of nitrous oxide and oxygen

A rapid thermal oxynitridation process using mixtures of nitrous oxide and oxygen for the fabrication of metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) capacitors is presented herein. This approach provides excellent control of Si/SiO2 interfacial nitrogen concentration from 0–1 at. % by varying growth temperature and N2O mol %. The dielectric quality of oxynitrides with interfacial nitrogen concentrations of 0.10, 0.22, 0.39 at. % was studied. As-processed oxynitride capacitors have Dit and fixed charge density as low as oxide capacitors. However, a small nitrogen incorporation at the interface improves Qbd and suppresses interface state generation caused by Fowler–Nordheim (FN) injection.