Excellent electrical and reliability characteristics of 11 Å oxynitride gate dielectrics by remote plasma nitridation treatment

Ultrathin oxynitride gate dielectrics of similar thickness (∼1.1 nm) fabricated by a rapid thermal NO-nitrided oxide (RTNO), a RTNO with remote plasma nitridation (RPN) treatment (RTNO-RPN), an in situ steam generated (ISSG) NO oxide, and an ISSG with RPN treatment (ISSG-RPN) are investigated. The results demonstrate that ISSG-RPN gate dielectrics exhibit superior interface properties, reduced leakage current, and improved reliability compared to other gate dielectrics. The ISSG-RPN oxynitride film is an attractive candidate as the advanced gate dielectrics in future generations of ultralarge scale integration complementary metal-oxide semiconductor technologies.