Deuterium doping for hot carrier reliability improvement
AssigneeAdvanced Micro Devices, Inc.
InventorsEmi Ishida, Peng Fang
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A semiconductor device having reduced hot carrier degradation is achieved by doping the semiconductor substrate and gate oxide with deuterium. A conventional semiconductor device is formed with sequentially deposited metal layers and dielectric layers and a topside protective dielectric layer deposited thereon. Deuterium is introduced to the semiconductor device by using deuterium-containing reactants in at least one of the semiconductor manufacturing steps to passivate dangling silicon bonds at the silicon/oxide interface region.
Claims6
A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device, which method comprises:
- forming a first dielectric layer on an upper surface of a semiconductor substrate;
- forming a first conductive layer on the first dielectric layer;
- sequentially depositing a plurality of dielectric layers and conductive layers above the semiconductor substrate;
- and
- doping the first dielectric layer and the semiconductor substrate with deuterium before depositing an uppermost conductive layer, thereby passivating dangling silicon bonds at an interface of the substrate and the first dielectric layer, wherein the doping step comprises:
- heating the semiconductor substrate in a deuterium vapor atmosphere to form the first dielectric layer.
A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device, which method comprises:
- forming a first dielectric layer on an upper surface of a semiconductor substrate;
- forming a first conductive layer comprising a gate electrode on the first dielectric layer;
- sequentially depositing a plurality of dielectric layers and conductive layers above the semiconductor substrate;
- and
- doping the first dielectric layer and the semiconductor substrate with deuterium before depositing an uppermost conductive layer, thereby passivating dangling silicon bonds at an interface of the substrate and the first dielectric layer, wherein the doping step comprises:
- depositing a dielectric sidewall spacer on the gate electrode, wherein one of the reactants comprises a silicon/deuterium compound.
A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device, which method comprises:
- forming a first dielectric layer comprising silicon dioxide having a thickness of less than about 80.ANG. on an upper surface of a semiconductor substrate;
- forming a first conductive layer comprising polycrystalline silicon on the dielectric layer;
- and
- sequentially depositing a plurality of dielectric layers and conductive layers above the semiconductor substrate;
- and
- doping the first dielectric layer and the semiconductor substrate with deuterium before depositing an uppermost conductive layer, thereby passivating dangling silicon bonds at an interface of the substrate and the first dielectric layer, wherein the doping step comprises:
- heating the semiconductor substrate in a deuterium vapor atmosphere to form the first dielectric layer.
A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device, which method comprises:
- forming a first dielectric layer comprising silicon dioxide having a thickness of less than about 80.ANG. on an upper surface of a semiconductor substrate;
- forming a first conductive layer comprising polycrystalline silicon on the dielectric layer, the first conductive layer comprising a gate electrode;
- and
- sequentially depositing a plurality of dielectric layers and conductive layers above the semiconductor substrate;
- and
- doping the first dielectric layer and the semiconductor substrate with deuterium before depositing an uppermost conductive layer, thereby passivating dangling silicon bonds at an interface of the substrate and the first dielectric layer, wherein the doping step comprises:
- depositing a dielectric sidewall spacer on the gate electrode, wherein one of the reactants comprises a silicon/deuterium compound.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.