Patent ID: 7518145

Claim:
A method, comprising: forming a material over a substrate; patterning the material to remove portions of the material and expose an underlying portion of the substrate; performing an oxidation process thereby forming an oxide layer over the exposed portion of the substrate and at an interface between the material and the substrate; and precleaning the substrate prior to the forming of the material, performing a nitridation process after the oxidation process thereby forming a nitrogen based layer at a top of the material and the oxide layer, the nitridation is performed at a low temperature, wherein the material is a high-K dielectric material of HfSiOx or HfO 2 , the patterning includes depositing a resist layer over a portion of the high-K dielectric on a critical area and removing unprotected high-K material on a non-critical area such that damage caused from stripping is only to the non-critical area, the oxidation is performed at a low temperature of about 400° C. or less, the high-K dielectric material blocks the oxidation process resulting in the interface between the substrate and the high-K dielectric material, and the nitridation process reduces leakage current in the oxide and provides a diffusion barrier for dopants thus preventing boron from penetrating into the substrate.