Characteristics of Large-Area Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposited TEOS Oxide with Various Short-Time Plasma Treatments

In this work, high quality silicon dioxide (SiO2) films were prepared by large-area plasmaenhanced chemical vapor deposition (LA-PECVD) using tetraethylorthosilicate(TEOS)-oxygen based chemistry. The effects of various short-time plasma treatments on these as-deposited TEOS oxide were also investigated. Different plasma treatments such as O2, N2O, and NH3 were used in our experiments. Electrical characteristics were exploited to examine the effects of plasma treatments. It was shown that after N2O, and NH3 plasma treatments, the electrical strength of oxide was enhanced. Besides, NH3 plasma treatment exhibited the highest enhancement efficiency. O2- plasma treatment, however, showed some harmful effects on the electrical properties of the TEOS oxide. The reliability tests including charge to breakdown (Qbd) and bias temperature stress (BTS) were also analyzed in these samples. Although better pre-stress characteristics were observed in those samples treated by NH3-plasma, samples with N2O plasma treatment showed superior stress endurance. Consequently, N2O plasma treatment seems to be the best candidate for future TFTs under the consideration of long-term reliability.