Abstract:
Methods such as Remote Plasma Nitridation (RPN) are used to introduce nitrogen into a gate dielectric layer. However, these methods yield nitrided layers where the layers are not uniform, both in cross-sectional profile and in nitrogen profile. Subjecting the nitrided layer to an additional NO anneal process increases the uniformity of the nitrided layer.

Description:
FIELD OF INVENTION  
       [0001]     The present invention relates to transistor design, and, in particular, a thermal nitrogen deposition method to improve the uniformity of the nitrided layer of a gate capacitor of a transistor.  
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0002]     The speed requirements for high-performance 0.13 um CMOS devices has driven gate oxide thicknesses to less than 20 Å, with inversion and physical thicknesses trending to less than 20 Å. As the dielectric layers are scaled thinner, the leakage currents through these gates exponentially increase due to more direct tunneling of electrons and holes through the potential barriers of the dielectric. This can affect device properties by causing higher standby power consumption, reliability problems, and degradation of certain chip functions such as timing. Battery powered devices for mobile applications for example, have some of the strictest requirements for leakage current, where lower leakage currents produce longer battery life.  
         [0003]      FIG. 1  shows a transistor structure with the gate dielectric ( 20 ). Gate leakage current is defined as the current from gate to drain when Vg ( 22 ) is less than the threshold voltage of the device. This current is an exponential function of thickness, with the current increasing by 2-3× for every 1 Å decrease in thickness, in the sub-20 Å thickness range for a gate dielectric layer that is formed using SiO 2 .  
         [0004]     Remote plasma nitridation (RPN) or decoupled plasma nitridation (DPN) are methods used to introduce large concentrations of nitrogen into the gate dielectric layer, thereby forming a silicon oxynitride gate dielectric. With the incorporation of nitrogen, the gate leakage current can by reduced. This is mainly due to increasing the capacitance of the layer which allows for larger physical thicknesses with the same electrical thickness. There is also some reduction in leakage current due to the change in chemical bonding at the dielectric-Si substrate interface. These particular processes are desirable due to their ability to incorporate large concentrations of nitrogen (&gt;4×10 21  at/cm 3 ) and their ability to control the profile of the nitrogen throughout the dielectric layer. These process techniques however, can be inherently non-uniform, thus causing a large non-uniformity of device parameters across the wafer. Non-uniformity of device parameters can cause severe yield degradation in chip performance if certain specifications are out of range. These electrical parameters can include leakage current, electrical thickness, threshold voltage, and device current. This invention addresses this non-unifommity, and demonstrates that the physical thickness and nitrogen concentration is improved by making use of the techniques described in the invention.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0005]     The present invention relates to a method for improving the uniformity of the nitrided layer that is formed over the base SiO 2  layer of a transistor gate dielectric, thus lowering the leakage current through the base SiO 2  layer. 
     
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0006]      FIG. 1  shows a transistor used to define gate leakage current.  
         [0007]      FIG. 2  shows the cross-sectional profile of a wafer, comprising the base oxide layer and the nitrided layer formed by any nitrogen-deposition process.  
         [0008]      FIG. 3  shows the cross sectional profile of a wafer, comprising a first base oxide layer, a second nitrided layer formed by any nitrogen-deposition process, and a third NO annealed layer. 
     
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
       [0009]      FIG. 2  shows the cross sectional profile of a wafer used as a gate dielectric. First a base oxide layer ( 24 ), for example, silicon dioxide (SiO 2 ), of the wafer is formed using known techniques, such as RTO or furnace oxidation. The base oxide layer can be between 5 Å and 20 Å thick. The base oxide layer is usually approximately 10 Å thick. Next, nitrogen is deposited in the base oxide layer using RPN or DPN, resulting in a highly-nitrided second layer ( 26 ) containing a high concentration of nitrogen. This highly-nitrided second layer can be anywhere between 10 Å-30 Å thick. However, RPN and DPN result in this highly-nitrided second layer having a non-uniform physical profile.  FIG. 2  shows the situation where the height of the second layer is greater in the middle than at the edges of the profile.  FIG. 2  shows only this one irregular profile. Other irregular profiles, such as where, for example, the edges of the highly nitrided layer are higher than the middle of the highly nitrided layer are possible as well, are not shown.  FIG. 2  defines h max  as the highest point of the highly-nitrided second layer above the base oxide layer and h min  as the lowest point of the highly-nitrided second layer above the base oxide layer.  
         [0010]     In addition to RPN&#39;s and DPN&#39;s resulting in the non-uniform physical structure of this highly-nitrided second layer, RPN and DPN also results in a non-uniform deposition of nitrogen within the highly-nitrided second layer. For example, Table 2 shows nitrogen concentrations between the center and the edge of the highly-nitrided second layer differing by 3×10 14  atoms/cm 3 .  
         [0011]     Subjecting this structure shown in  FIG. 2  (i.e., a two-layer structure comprising a base oxide layer and a highly-nitrided second layer) to a nitric thermal anneal process reduces the non-uniformity of the profile of the highly-nitrided second layer, resulting in the cross-sectional profile shown in  FIG. 3 . The resulting structure has a base oxide layer ( 24 ), a highly nitrided second layer ( 26 ), and a NO anneal layer ( 28 ). The NO anneal layer can be between 1 Å and 30 Å thick, and is typically between 1 Å and 5 Å thick. Subjecting this structure shown in  FIG. 2  to a nitric thermal anneal process also reduces the non-uniformity of nitrogen deposition concentration within the highly-nitrided second layer, as shown in Table 2. Two methods can be used to carry out this nitric thermal anneal.  
         [0012]     In a first embodiment of the present invention, a plurality of wafers on which a base oxide layer and a highly-nitrided second layer have been formed are put into an annealing furnace. The time, temperature, and pressure of the annealing process can be varied to achieve the maximum uniformity of the nitric anneal layer. The wafers are exposed to a range of temperatures for times ranging from 5 minutes to 30 minutes. The temperatures to which the wafers are exposed can range between 500-1100 degrees Centigrade. The pressure to which the wafers are exposed during this process can range between 1-760 torr. During the time when the wafers are in the furnace exposed to the annealing temperature and pressure, gas is allowed to flow over the surface of the wafers. This gas can be any gas which under the temperature and pressure conditions under which the anneal is performed dissociates into NO. The gas is heated to a temperature in the range of 800-1100 degrees Centigrade before being admitted into the furnace and allowed to pass over the wafers. Preferably, the gas is heated to 950 degrees Centigrade before being admitted into the furnace and allowed to pass over the wafers.  
         [0013]     In a second embodiment of the present invention, single wafer tools are used to perform the annealing process instead of an annealing furnace. In other words, while using the annealing furnace allows a batch of wafers to undergo thermal annealing at one time, in this embodiment, single wafers are subjected to the annealing process at one time. The time, temperature, and pressure parameters to which the wafers are exposed are the same as in the first embodiment described previously. The wafers are exposed to a range of temperatures for times ranging from 5 seconds to 30 minutes. The temperatures to which the wafers are exposed can range between 500-1100 degrees Centigrade. The pressure to which the wafers are exposed during this process can range between 1-760 torr. During the time when the wafers are exposed to the annealing temperature and pressure, gas is allowed to flow over the surface of the wafers. This gas can be any gas which under the temperature and pressure conditions under which the anneal is performed dissociates into NO. The gas is heated to a temperature in the range of 800-1200 degrees Centigrade before being allowed to pass over the wafers. Preferably, the gas is heated to 950 degrees Centigrade before being allowed to pass over the wafers.  
         [0014]     The advantage of the first embodiment discussed above is that several wafers can be annealed at once. The advantage of the second embodiment is that, in a single wafer process, the required temperature and pressure can be reached in a shorter period of time.  
         [0015]     The following table (Table 1) shows the results obtained for two furnace annealing processes accomplished under the conditions shown. These data are obtained by optical measuring:  
                                                                       Furnace               Furnace Anneal               Anneal for 26               for 13 minutes               minutes N 2 O               N 2 O 700 C (950C               800 C (950C               precombustion               precombustion               chamber               chamber               temperature)               temperature)                   Elliptical       Std.   Elliptical       Std.       Process/sequence   thickness   Range   Dev.   Thickness   Range   Dev.                   RPN   21.44 A   2.24 A    0.5 A   21.34 A   1.91A   0.47A       RPN/Furnace   22.46 A   1.38 A   0.33 A   24.17 A   0.93 A   0.28 A       anneal       RTO/RPN   20.27 A   1.53 A   0.39 A   20.04 A   1.05 A   0.27 A       RTO/RPN/Furnace   23.04 A   0.70 A   0.18 A   26.11 A   0.98 A   0.24 A       Anneal                  
 
         [0016]     Where: (a) elliptical thickness represents the thickness of the highly-nitrided layer after the various processes shown; and (b) range shows the difference between the highest and lowest points of the cross-sectional profile of the top of the highly-nitrided layer. All unit measurements shown are in angstroms. As the data above shows, the furnace annealing processes reduces the range; that is, the difference between the highest and lowest points on the cross-sectional profile of the top of the highly nitrided layer.  
         [0017]     The following table (Table 2) shows data obtained from the furnace annealing process measured by secondary ion mass spectrometry.  
                                                                                                 SIMS N               Elliptical   TOF-SIMS   SIMS N dose   concentration       Process   Wafer site   thickness   Thickness   (e14 al/cm 3 )   (e21 at/cm 3 )                                1. RTO/RPN   Center   20.14A   15.0A   9   4       (no anneal)   Edge   19.02 A   17.0 A   6   3           Mean   19.65 A       2. RTO/RPN   Center   23.24 A   20.0 A   9   4       and Furnace 1       anneal           Edge   22.29 A   19.0 A   8   4           Mean   22.80 A       3. RTO/RPN   Center   26.25 A   23.0 A   8   3.5       and Furnace 2       anneal           Edge   25.50 A   23.0 A   7   3.4           Mean   25.79 A                      
 
         [0018]     Where physical elliptical uniformity is defined as 100*(max-min)/(2*mean), where max and min are the maximum height and minimum height, respectively, of the cross sectional profile of the highly nitrided layer, the processes listed above yielded the following data. Process 1 yielded a physical elliptical uniformity of 2.85%. Process 2 yielded a physical elliptical uniformity of 2.08%. Process 3 yielded a physical elliptical uniformity of 1.42%.  
         [0019]     The table also shows the improvement in concentration uniformity gained by the annealing process. Process 1, in which no anneal was performed, yielded a dose uniformity of 67% and a concentration uniformity of 77%. By contrast, process 2 yielded a dose uniformity of 89% and a concentration uniformity of 100%. Process 3 yielded a dose uniformity of 88% and a concentration uniformity of 97%.  
         [0020]     The Furnace 1 process is a furnace annealing process for 13 minutes N 2 O 700 C (950C precombustion chamber temperature). The Furnace 2 process is a furnace annealing process at 26 minutes N 2 O 800 C (950C precombustion chamber temperature).  
         [0021]     The foregoing description encompasses only the preferred embodiments of the present invention. The following claims and their equivalents define the scope of the invention.