Analysis of SI Substrate Damage Induced by Inductively Coupled Plasma Reactor with Various Superposed Bias Frequencies

Abstract

AbstractPlasma-induced Si substrate damage has become one of the critical issues in advanced MOSFETs with shallower junction in source/drain (S/D) extension regions, since the damaged layer thickness will be in conflict with the device design margin such as junction depth [1]. This Si substrate damage is realized as “Si recess” [2] as shown in Fig. 1. Although Si recess is considered to induce dopant loss and performance degradation in MOSFETs, few attentions has been paid to suppress Si recess from the viewpoint of plasma design. Moreover, one can easily observe a constant thickness of Si recess in ultra-scaled MOSFETs recently presented at many conferences [3–5]. It is worthy to note that the thickness is considered to be governed by plasma parameters such as ion energy distribution function (IEDF), electron temperature and plasma density [6]. In order to understand the mechanism and to control the damage, the plasma-induced defects in Si surface layer should be quantitatively estimated, and then, plasma designs should be optimized. Defect generation probability was proposed from an optical analysis as a measure of the damage [7], on one hand. With regard to plasma design, on the other, a plasma source driven by the superimposed dual bias frequency was reported in order to control an IEDF [8] and believed to be a promising candidate for future plasma processes. Recently the effects of superposed bias-frequency on the defect generation probability have been preliminary reported [9]. In this paper, the effect of bias power with the superposed configurations on defect generation process will be investigated in detail from various aspects. The structure of interfacial damaged layer (IL) will be analyzed by spectroscopic ellipsometry and photoreflectance spectroscopy. Also for the purpose of verifying the above methods and clarifying the interfacial growth and carrier trap site generation in the vicinity of plasma-exposed surface, the result by a capacitance–voltage (C–V) measurement (electrical test) will be discussed.KeywordsSpectroscopic EllipsometryBias PowerSurface Layer ThicknessSilicon Substrate SurfacePlasma DesignThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.