Patent ID: 7662730

Claim:
A method for fabricating an ultra-high tensile-stressed nitride film deposited over a semiconductor substrate, comprising: providing a substrate; performing a plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) process to deposit a transitional silicon nitride film over the substrate, the transitional silicon nitride film having a first concentration of hydrogen atoms ranging between 1E22 atoms/cm 3 and 1E24 atoms/cm 3 , and a Si—H/N—H ratio of 1.0; and after depositing the transitional silicon nitride film, performing a post-treatment to reduce the first concentration of hydrogen atoms of the transitional silicon nitride film to a second concentration of hydrogen atoms, thereby transforming the transitional silicon nitride film into the ultra-high tensile-stressed nitride film having a tensile stress equal to or greater than 1.5 GPa and having a Si—H/N—H ratio of 0.3, wherein a difference between the first concentration of hydrogen atoms and the second concentration of hydrogen atoms (ΔH) is greater than 1E22 atoms/cm 3 .