Nitric acid oxidation of Si (NAOS) method for low temperature fabrication of SiO2/Si and SiO2/SiC structures

• DOI: 10.1016/j.apsusc.2010.03.092
• Publication Date: 2010-03-26T14:29:24Z
• Authors: H. Kobayashi; K. Imamura; W.-B. Kim; S.-S. Im; Asuha
• Keywords: Nitric acid

We have developed low temperature formation methods of SiO 2 /Si and SiO 2 /SiC structures by use of nitric acid, i.e., nitric acid oxidation of Si (or SiC) (NAOS) methods. By use of the azeotropic NAOS method (i.e., immersion in 68 wt% HNO 3 aqueous solutions at 120°C), an ultrathin (i.e., 1.3-1.4 nm) SiO 2 layer with a low leakage current density can be formed on Si. The leakage current density can be further decreased by post-metallization anneal (PMA) at 200 ° C in hydrogen atmosphere, and consequently the leakage current density at the gate bias voltage of 1 V becomes 1/4-1/20 of that of an ultrathin (i.e., 1.5 nm) thermal oxide layer usually formed at temperatures between 800 and 900 °C. The low leakage current density is attributable to (i) low interface state density, (ii) low SiO 2 gap-state density, and (iii) high band discontinuity energy at the SiO 2 /Si interface arising from the high atomic density of the NAOS SiO 2 layer. For the formation of a relatively thick (i.e., ≥10 nm) SiO 2 layer, we have developed the two-step NAOS method in which the initial and subsequent oxidation is performed by immersion in ∼40 wt% HN0 3 and azeotropic HN0 3 aqueous solutions, respectively. In this case, the SiO 2 formation rate does not depend on the Si surface orientation. Using the two-step NAOS method, a uniform thickness SiO 2 layer can be formed even on the rough surface of poly-crystalline Si thin films. The atomic density of the two-step NAOS SiO 2 layer is slightly higher than that for thermal oxide. When PMA at 250 °C in hydrogen is performed on the two-step NAOS SiO 2 layer, the current-voltage and capacitance-voltage characteristics become as good as those for thermal oxide formed at 900 ° C. A relatively thick (i.e., ≥10 nm) SiO 2 layer can also be formed on SiC at 120°C by use of the two-step NAOS method. With no treatment before the NAOS method, the leakage current density is very high, but by heat treatment at 400 °C in pure hydrogen, the leakage current density is decreased by approximately seven orders of magnitude. The hydrogen treatment greatly smoothens the SiC surface, and the subsequent NAOS method results in the formation of an atomically smooth SiO 2 /SiC interface and a uniform thickness SiO 2 .