<title>Hot-carrier degradation study of high-density plasma (HDP) oxide deposition process in deep-submicron NMOSFETs</title>

Abstract

High Density Plasma (HDP) process has been predominately used for inter-metal dielectric film due to the superior metal gap fill capability comparing with the common plasma-enhanced CVD process. However, it causes severe hot-carrier (HC) lifetime degradation. Most of works are concentrated on plasma charging damage. The limited study of HDP plasma charging effect on NMOSFET and PMOSFET HC lifetime degradation restricts the understanding of its behavior. Furthermore, the impact of hydrogen related defects on HC lifetime has not been interpreted clear enough to understand the effectiveness of SiN layer. In this research work, the effect of HDP process on NMOSFET and PMOSFET hot carrier lifetime have been systematically studied and investigated. The sensitiveness of HC degradation on plasma charging induced by HDP process on NMOSFET and PMOSFET has been explicated. The behavior of SiN layer on NMOSFET has been studied. The location of SiN layer has been recommended to improve the HC performance.