Method of fabricating an improved spacer

Abstract

A method of fabricating an improved spacer comprising the steps of providing a semiconductor substrate that has a gate already formed thereon. A PNO spacer is formed on a sidewall of the gate. The method of forming the PNO spacer comprises first forming a PNO layer on the conductive layer and the semiconductor, and performing an anisotropic etching step on the PNO layer to form the PNO spacer. The step of forming the PNO layer includes chemical vapor deposition (CVD) using PH3, O2, NH3 and N2 as reagents. The step of etching the PNO layer includes plasma etching using CFX+O2 as plasma source. The material of the PNO spacer is a chemical compound PXNYOZ containing phosphorous (P), nitrogen (N) and oxygen (O) and does not contain silicon. Therefore, the PNO spacer can avoid erosion during etching and does not react with Ti during the Salicide process.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.