Method of fabricating silicon nitride nanodots
AssigneeASM International N.V.
InventorsJacobus Johannes Beulens, Yuet Mei Wan
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Abstract
A method of forming silicon nitride nanodots that comprises the steps of forming silicon nanodots and then nitriding the silicon nanodots by exposing them to a nitrogen containing gas. Silicon nanodots were formed by low pressure chemical vapor deposition. Nitriding of the silicon nanodots was performed by exposing them to nitrogen radicals formed in a microwave radical generator, using N2 as the source gas.
Claims33
A method for the formation of silicon nitride nanodots on a semiconductor substrate, the method comprising the steps of:
- forming silicon nanodots on the semiconductor substrate;
- and
- nitriding the silicon nanodots by exposing the silicon nanodots to a nitrogen containing gas.
A method for forming a memory device, comprising:
- depositing a discontinuous silicon layer on a substrate;
- and
- nitriding the discontinuous silicon layer.
A non-volatile memory device comprising:
- a semiconductor substrate;
- a plurality of silicon nitride nanodots across an area of the substrate, the silicon nitride nanodots having an average size between about 1 nm and 100 nm and covering between about 10% and 50% of the area of the substrate.
An integrated circuit, comprising a substrate having a plurality of silicon nitride nanodots, wherein a core region of at least some of the nanodots has a lower nitrogen concentration than a surface region of the at least some of the nanodots.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.