Interface Reliability Research Articles

Relationship between Interfacial Roughness and Dielectric Reliability for Silicon Oxynitride Gate Dielectrics Processed with Nitric Oxide

ABSTRACTThe greatest benefits of nitrogen incorporation into gate dielectrics may be obtained by placing nitrogen preferentially at the interfacial regions of the dielectric film. One method of distributing nitrogen in this manner is by using a three-step thermal process consisting of 1.) oxynitridation in NO, 2.) subsequent reoxidation in O2, and 3.) a final NO anneal. This study investigates the effect of NO processing on substrate/dielectric interface roughness and correlates that roughness with dielectric reliability. The initial NO-containing step can roughen the interface, as can subsequent reoxidation. Increased NO exposure yields a greater nitrogen content and a concomitant increase in interface roughness. These films show a degradation in charge to breakdown (Qbd) of at least an order of magnitude when compared with similarly prepared O2-oxide films. An O2/NO process produces films with interface roughness and Qbd comparable to that of pure SiO2, independent of nitrogen content. The oxynitride reliability depends on the exact scheme for incorporating nitrogen into SiO2.

A Stress Singularity Parameter Approach for Evaluating the Interfacial Reliability of Plastic Encapsulated LSI Devices

Since the stress and displacement fields near a bonding edge show singularity behaviors, the adhesive strength evaluation method, using maximum stresses calculated by a numerical stress analysis such as the finite element method, is generally not valid. In this paper, a new method, which uses two stress singularity parameters, is presented for evaluating adhesive strength. This method is applied to several kinds of molded models, composed of epoxy base resin and Fe-Ni alloy sheets, and plastic encapsulated LSI models. Predictions about the initiation and extension of delamination are compared with the results of observations made by scanning acoustic tomography on these models.