Metal-insulator-semiconductor structures of InSb/SiO2with very low interface trap density

MIS structures fabricated using InSb and silicon dioxide with an interface trap density as low as 4×10¹⁰ cm^-2 eV^-1 have been achieved. This is about one order of magnitude less than any other reported figure for the InSb MIS system. Both capacitance/voltage and conductance techniques have been employed to study the interface properties of InSb/SiO₂. A low state density of <10¹⁰ cm^-2 was observed and the dielectric breakdown field of the oxide was greater than 4 mV cm^-1      

The doped Si/SiO2 interface

A study is reported of the influence of dopant atoms on the SiSiO₂ interface states of thermally oxidized silicon. It was found that acceptor or donor atoms induce interface states and oxide charges. The effect is largest in the case of acceptor dopants and is independent of the doping process. The influence of the dopant atoms on oxide charge is probably related to the different segregation coefficients of acceptors and donors.     

Identification of stress-induced leakage current components and thecorresponding trap models in SiO2 films

Time-decay stress-induced leakage current (SILC) has been systematically investigated for the cases of both Fowler-Nordheim (FN) stress and substrate hot-hole stress. From the three viewpoints of the reproducibility of the-current component for the gate voltage scan, the change of oxide charge during the gate voltage scan, and the resistance of the current component to thermal annealing, it has been found that time-decay stress-induced leakage current is composed of five current components, regardless of stress type. Trap models corresponding to each current component have been proposed. In addition, it has also been proven that holes generate the electron traps related to one of those current components     

Pre-breakdown in thin SiO2 films

The on-off fluctuations of the tunnel current in 5.6 nm SiO₂ films before dielectric breakdown are analyzed in detail. For this purpose, a low noise measurement system has been realized which allows detection of pre-breakdown phenomena and interruption of the stress before catastrophic failure occurs. A spectral analysis of these fluctuations is presented along with preliminary results of the experiments made possible, for the first time, by the new measurement system     

High-field-induced degradation in ultra-thin SiO2 films

Very thin thermal oxides are shown to exhibit a failure mode that is undetected by conventional breakdown tests. This failure mode appears in the form of excessive leakage current at low field and is induced by high-field stresses. The stress-induced oxide leakage is permanent and stable with time and thermal annealing. It becomes the dominant failure mode of thin oxides because it always precedes destructive breakdown. Experimental results and theoretical calculations show that the leakage current is not caused by positive charge generation and accumulation in the oxide. It is proposed that the oxide leakage originates from localized defect-related weak spots where the insulator has experienced significant deterioration from electrical stress. The leakage conduction mechanism appears to be thermally assisted tunneling through the locally reduced injection barrier, and the model seems to be consistent with both I-V measurements at temperatures from 77 K to 250°C and theoretical calculations     

Evolution of surface-states density of Si/wet thermal SiO2 interface during bias-temperature treatment

Evolution of Si/SiO₂ surface state density during a negative bias temperature treatment is reported. Two kinds of surface state are observed and their evolution is studied with the oxidation conditions, the type of the substrate and a preliminary electronic irradiation as parameters. A qualitative model is proposed to explain the observed results.     

Structural properties of fluorinated SiO2 thin films

Fluorinated SiO₂ (SiOF) films, prepared by plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition from SiH₄, N₂O and CF₄ precursors, have been analysed by infrared (IR) spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) to extract chemical and structural information. Notwithstanding XPS reveals that fluorine concentrations are quite low (less than 4 at.%), the analysis of the Si–O–Si vibration modes in the IR spectra indicates that CF₄ addition involves a deeper modification of the film structure, than the simple formation of Si–F bonds. In particular, by increasing the F concentration in the oxides, the stretching frequency of the Si–O–Si bonds increases, while the bending frequency decreases. On the basis of the central force model, both observations are consistent with the occurrence of a Si–O–Si bond angle relaxation phenomenon, the importance of which increases with the fluorine concentration in the films.     

Laser-induced self-organization of nano-wires on SiO2/Si interface

Original observation of new graded band gap structures formed on the surface of elementary Si semiconductor at studying the optical properties of Si nano-hills formed at the SiO₂/Si interface by pulsed Nd:YAG laser irradiation is reported. The self-organized nano-hills on Si surface are characterized by a strong photoluminescence in the visible range of spectrum with a shoulder extended to the long-wave part of the spectrum. The feature is explained by the quantum confinement effect in nano-hills-nano-wires of gradually changing diameter.     

Determination of Si/SiO2 interface roughness using weaklocalization

The interface roughness of intentionally textured Si/SiO₂ interfaces was measured using the quantum weak localization (WL) correction to the electrical conductivity at low temperatures. The deduced roughness was confirmed by observation of the Si surface replicas by atomic force microscopy (AFM). Quantitative agreement between the two methods was found (Δ=1.2 to 1.4 Å from WL and 1.35 Å from AFM). For a surface with artificially induced texture, it is found that WL can easily distinguish a significant increase in roughness relative to the smooth surfaces. AFM confirms this qualitative conclusion     

Photo-CVD process for ultra thin SiO2 films

In this paper we first report the use of very low deposition rate photo-induced chemical vapor deposition process, (below 0.05 nm/min). This photo-CVD process is adequate to grow very thin and ultra thin layers of SiO₂. Details on the design of the reaction chamber, reactive gases and process parameters to obtain the desired deposition regime are presented. Dependence of deposition rate on pressure in the chamber and gas flow ratio is discussed. Deposited layers were characterized using I–V and C–V techniques.     

Contact potential measurements on thin SiO2 films

Contact potential measurements by the Kelvin method were performed in vacuum on silicon wafers whose thermal oxide film was etched into the shape of a wedge. A given position along the oxide corresponded directly to a given depth and by scanning a reference electrode stripe across the wafer, information about the distribution of the oxide charge through the thickness was obtained. It was found that the oxide charge was positive and concentrated within a few hundred angstroms of the SiSiO₂ interface.     

Identification of stress-induced leakage current components and thecorresponding trap models in SiO2 films [MOStransistors]

Time-decay stress-induced leakage current (SILC) has been systematically investigated for the cases of both Fowler-Nordheim (FN) stress and substrate hot-hole stress. From the three viewpoints of the reproducibility of the current component for the gate voltage scan, the change of oxide charge during the gate voltage scan, and the resistance of the current component to thermal annealing, it has been found that time-decay stress-induced leakage current is composed of five current components, regardless of stress type. Trap models corresponding to each current component have been proposed. In addition, it has also been proven that holes generate the electron traps related to one of those current components     

Effect of SiO2/Si interface roughness on gate current

In many theoretical investigations of the electric-tunnel effect through an ultrathin oxide in metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) structure, it is commonly assumed that the oxide is of uniform thickness. One example of nonuniformity in oxides is interface roughness. Interface roughness effects on direct tunneling current in ultrathin MOS structures are investigated theoretically in this article. The roughness at SiO₂/Si interface is described in terms of Gauss distribution. It is shown that the transmission coefficient increases with root-mean-square (rms) roughness increasing, and the effect of rms roughness on the direct tunneling current decreases with the applied voltage increasing and increases with rms roughness increasing.     

Spin synthesis of monolayer of SiO2 thin films

The highly ordered monolayer of submicron size silica (SiO₂) particles (235 nm) is developed on p-silicon by using three-step spin-coating in colloidal suspension, which has significant potential in various applications. The influence of three-step spin speeds, spinning time, acceleration time between different steps, concentration of SiO₂ particles in the solution, solution quantity, and the ambient humidity (relative humidity) on the properties of monolayer SiO₂ are studied in order to achieve a large area monolayer film. A relatively high surface coverage and uniform monolayer film of SiO₂ particles in the range of 85%-90% are achieved by appropriate control of the preparative parameters. We conclude that this method can be useful in industrial applications, because of the fabrication speed, surface coverage and cost of the process.     

Evaluation of Qbd for electrons tunneling fromthe Si/SiO2 interface compared to electron tunneling from thepoly-Si/SiO2 interface

Electrical time-to-breakdown (TTB) measurements have shown the charge to breakdown Q_bd of gate oxide capacitors fabricated on n-type well (n-well) substrates always to be higher than that of capacitors on p-type well (p-well) substrates on the same wafer when both are biased into accumulation under normal test conditions. Here the authors correlate the higher n-well Q_bd to smooth capacitor oxide/substrate interfaces and minimized grain boundary cusps at the poly-Si gate/oxide interfaces, confirming that Fowler-Nordheim tunneling is the dominant current conduction mechanisms through the oxide. They correlate higher Q_bd to higher barrier height for a given substrate type and observe that the slope of the barrier height versus temperature plot is lower for both p-well and n-well cases with electrons tunneling from the silicon substrate. This is attributed to surface roughness at the poly-Si gate/SiO₂ interface. A poly-Si gate deposition and annealing process with clean, smooth oxide/substrate interfaces will improve the p-well breakdown characteristics and allow higher Q_bd to be achieved     

高介电常数栅介质/二氧化硅界面偶极子成因研究

The formation of an electric dipole at the high-k/SiO2 interface is quantitatively analyzed. The band lineups and physical origin of dipole formation at the high-k/SiO2 interface are explained by the dielectric contact induced gap states(DCIGS). The charge neutrality level(CNL) of the DCIGS, which represents a distribution of high-k and SiO2 contact induced gap states, is utilized to study the dipole moment. The charge transfer due to different CNLs of high-k and SiO2 is considered as the dominant origin of dipole formation. The theoretically calculated dipole strengths of high-k/SiO2 systems based on this model are in good agreement with the experimental data.     

The influence of mobile ions on the Si/SiO2 interface traps

An investigation of the relation between mobile ions and interface traps was carried out, using an appropriate technique to determine the number and type of mobile ions. It was found that mobile ions do not cause interface traps in the middle 0.8 eV of the bandgap. It appears that interface traps are rather caused by some stress effect. The results are considered in light of previously reported work.     

Quantitative estimation of SiO2 content in igneous rocksusing thermal infrared spectra with a neural network approach

Develops a method for estimating the SiO₂ content of igneous rocks using thermal infrared reflectance spectra, aiming to utilize it in the remote sensing of thermal spectral emission. Silicate minerals, which are the major components of the Earth's surface, display their strongest fundamental molecular vibration bands in the thermal infrared region (8-12 μm). The wavelengths of these so-called “reststrahlen bands” are systematically related to the SiO ₂ content of rocks. Pattern matching (using a back-propagating neural network approach) between simulated remotely sensed data and the SiO₂ content was performed. This approach was evaluated by comparing the spectrally estimated SiO₂ content with the chemically determined SiO₂ content for a separate set of rock samples. The estimated error between the spectrally estimated and chemically determined SiO₂ contents for most samples was within 7%. Future multiband satellite sensors of the Earth's thermal emission will have much higher spectral and spatial resolution than existing ones, and should be able to detect these spectral trends     

SiO2薄膜光学常数物理模型

SiO2薄膜是光学薄膜领域内常用的重要低折射率材料之一。在文中研究中,通过测量薄膜的椭偏参数,使用非线性最小二乘法反演计算获得薄膜的光学常数。采用离子束溅射和电子束蒸发两种方法制备了SiO2薄膜,在拟合过程中,基于L8（22）正交表设计了8组反演计算实验,以评价函数MSE为考核指标。实验结果表明:对IBS SiO2薄膜拟合MSE函数影响最大的为界面层模型,对EB SiO2薄膜拟合MSE函数影响最大的为Pore模型。同时确定了不同物理模型对拟合MSE函数的影响大小和反演计算过程模型选择的次序,按照确定的模型选择次序拟合,两种薄膜反演计算的MSE函数相对初始MSE可下降35%和38%,表明拟合过程模型选择合理物理意义明确。文中提供了一种判断薄膜物理模型中各因素对于薄膜光学常数分析作用大小的途径,对于薄膜光学常数分析具有指导意义。