Effects of N-2 RPN on the structural and electrical characteristics of remote plasma atomic layer-deposited HfO2 films

Abstract

The effect of remote plasma nitridation (RPN) pretreatment on the structural and electrical characteristics of remote plasma atomic layer-deposited HfO2 films was investigated. An atomic change in the nitrogen's partial local coordination structure in the vicinity of Hf-O-Si was closely associated with the structural and electrical characteristics of the HfO2 films. The HfO2 film pretreated with RPN retained its amorphous structure after rapid thermal annealing at 600 S C for 30 s. The RPN pretreated-HfO2 film also showed significant enhancement of the gate capacitance and retained low leakage current densities (6.70 x 10(-8) A cm(-2) at vertical bar V-G - V-FB vertical bar = 2 V).