Effect of hydrogen content on dielectric strength of the silicon nitride film deposited by ICP-CVD* *Project supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions of China (Grant Nos. 19KJD140002 and 19KJB140008), the Key Projects of Ministry of Science and Technology of China (Grant No. SQ2020YFF0407077), Postgraduate Research & Practice Innovation Program of Jiangsu Province, China (Grant Nos.

Abstract

The inductively coupled plasma chemical vapor deposition (ICP-CVD) deposited silicon nitride (SiN x ) thin film was evaluated for its application as the electrical insulating film for a capacitor device. In order to achieve highest possible dielectric strength of SiN x , the process parameters of ICP-CVD were carefully tuned to control hydrogen in SiN x films by means of tuning N2/SiH4 ratio and radio frequency (RF) power. Besides electrical measurements, the hydrogen content in the films was measured by dynamic secondary ion mass spectrometry (D-SIMS). Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and micro Raman spectroscopy were used to characterize the SiN x films by measuring Si–H and N–H bonds’ intensities. It was found that the more Si–H bonds lead to the higher dielectric strength.