Method for plasma treating and plasma nitriding gate oxides
AssigneeTaiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
InventorsJuing-Yi Cheng, Tze-Liang Lee
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Abstract
A method for forming a nitrided gate oxide over a silicon substrate in a semiconductor device fabrication process including providing a silicon semiconductor substrate; thermally growing a gate oxide layer including silicon dioxide over the silicon substrate; plasma treating the gate oxide layer including a plasma supplied with a plasma source gas including at least one of helium, hydrogen, deuterium, and oxygen; plasma nitriding the gate oxide layer according to a plasma treatment including a plasma supplied with a plasma source gas including nitrogen; and, thermally annealing the silicon semiconductor substrate including the gate oxide layer according to at least one annealing treatment.
Claims17
A method for forming a nitrided gate oxide over a silicon substrate in a semiconductor device fabrication process comprising the steps of:
- providing a silicon substrate;
- thermally growing a gate oxide layer comprising silicon dioxide over the silicon substrate;
- plasma treating the gate oxide layer in a first plasma treatment step comprising a plasma consisting essentially of a plasma source gas selected from the group consisting of helium, hydrogen, deuterium, and oxygen;
- plasma nitriding the gate oxide layer in a second plasma treatment step after the first plasma treatment step, wherein the second plasma treatment step comprises a plasma supplied with a plasma source gas including nitrogen;
- and,
- thermally annealing the silicon substrate including the gate oxide layer according to at least one annealing treatment.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.