Anticipation of nitrided oxides electrical thickness based on XPS measurement

Plasma nitridation of thermally grown oxide films has proven to be an excellent gate dielectric in meeting the electrical requirements of the 65 nm node. As the 65 nm device performance is very sensitive to both physical thickness and nitrogen dose of these dielectric films, it is highly desirable to predict the electrical properties of such films. We present a simple physical model to forecast the capacitance-equivalent thickness (CET) of nMOS devices for 65 nm technology. The model is based on the total nitrogen dose and the dielectric physical thickness, both given by in-line X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) measurement of the plasma nitrided gate dielectric. This model uses an estimated gate oxide dielectric constant, the gate depletion capacitance and the inversion layer capacitance. A good correlation is obtained between calculated and measured CET for plasma nitrided oxides from 19 to 30 Å CET and for a large range of incorporated nitrogen doses.