Annealing behavior of silicon nitride and silicon oxynitride films prepared by ECR plasma CVD method

Abstract

The influence of thermal annealing on the bond configuration and structural properties of silicon nitride (SiN) and silicon oxynitride (SiON) films prepared by the electron cyclotron resonance plasma CVD (ECR p-CVD) method have been studied. Both the SiN and SiON films deposited at high microwave powers in which the N-H bonds are predominant have been found to be thermally stable even after annealing at 900°C from results of IR absorption measurements. The ESR measurements for the SiN films revealed that the spin densities of the films deposited at high microwave powers also showed no change at high annealing temperature, while those of the films prepared at a low microwave powers change at an annealing temperature of 400°C.