Defects in silicon oxynitride gate dielectric films

As the aggressive scaling of the metal-oxide-semiconductor structure continues, new reliability challenges in gate dielectric materials now came across as the gate dielectric thickness will be further down scaled to its technological constraint (•, ≡Si-O-O^•, ≡Si₂N^•), diamagnetic defects (≡Si-Si≡, =N-H), dicoordinated Si center (=Si:) and neutral defects (≡SiO^•, ≡SiOH, ≡Si-O-O-Si≡) are discussed in detail based on both the experimental and simulation results. © 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.