ABSTRACTWe have studied the thermal growth chemistry and bonding structure of three
promising ultrathin (5–20Å), nitrogen rich passivation layers on Si(100),
namely-Si3N4, NO/Si(100) grown oxynitride and NO
annealed SiO2. These films are intended to serve as substrates
with excellent diffusion barrier/interface properties during deposition of
high- K dielectrics such as Ta2O5, with
tSiO2 equivalent <30Å for ULSI applications. In this paper
we show that it is possible to form films with a tailored composition and
nitrogen profile using techniques that can easily be integrated with
existing silicon processing technology. Alternating growth and surface
analysis by X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) is used to non
destructively characterize the growth.