engleski

Structure and defects in thin silicon oxynitride films

There is a substantial interest in silicon oxynitride films for a variety of applications in modern microelectronics devices, such as logics and non volatile memories. Silicon oxynitride films exhibit many desirable properties of both silicon dioxide and silicon nitride, such as stable interfaces with silicon, relatively high dielectric constants, excellent breakdown behavior and reduced mechanical stress. Structural and chemical information on films obtained by many different methods are very important for better understanding of their properties. Currently, there is a considerable interest in the dynamic behavior of hydrogen incorporated in both N-H and Si-H bonds to the concentrations of 2-10%. The presence of hydrogen in these materials is a major cause of their instabilities, due to its capability to diffuse at relatively low temperatures. Defects in amorphous (hydrogenated) oxynitride films are of particular importance as they, due to their electrical activity, play a decisive role in the conduction and memory properties of these dielectric materials. In addition, the charging effects in these dielectric films in thin film transistors are also caused by the presence and activity of defects. Furthermore, as defects in these materials play a decisive role in their applications and since hydrogen and defect physics have been found to be closely related, the study of the hydrogen dynamics behavior may reveal important information about the defect physics in such amorphous semiconductors and insulators. In this review some recent results obtained with different techniques will be given.

thin films; silicon oxinitride; defects

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