High power nitrogen-incorporating remote plasma oxidation process for MOS applications

Summary form only given. A 400 W remote plasma oxidation process has been developed in a cluster tool which uses N/sub 2/O and O/sub 2/ for controlling incorporated amounts of nitrogen within the grown oxide. This technique has been developed for Si/SiO/sub 2/ interface formation for addition of nitrogen at the interface. Verification through in-situ Auger electron spectroscopy demonstrates that nitrogen is incorporated within the 15 /spl Aring/ grown oxide and is therefore confined to the Si/SiO/sub 2/ interface. Ex-situ SIMS analysis indicates incorporation of /spl sim/8/spl times/10/sup 14/ atoms/cm/sup 2/ of nitrogen at the interface for a 30 second oxidation in pure N/sub 2/O, and the nitrogen content can be effectively controlled by adding O/sub 2/ to the process mixture and varying the N/sub 2/O/O/sub 2/ percentage. Gate stacks for MOS devices are fabricated by depositing a bulk oxide by remote plasma enhanced CVD (RPECVD) on top of the grown interface and then capping the structure with rapid thermally deposited polysilicon. MOSFET devices demonstrate the usefulness of this oxidation technique for interface formation.