Abstract
Metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) devices with in situ remote plasma treatment during high-k dielectric deposition are studied in this work. The EOT value and leakage current of the MOS device with in situ NH 3 plasma treated high-k dielectrics can be significantly reduced to 0.83 nm and 1.7 × 10 -3 A/cm 2 , respectively. The stress-induced flat-band voltage shifts and leakage current are obviously reduced as well. In-situ remote plasma treatment also provides a good approach of nitridation for high-k dielectrics. The oxygen vacancy can be passivated by nitrogen, which suppresses further oxygen diffusion and the formation of the oxygen vacancies. The in situ NH 3 plasma treatment is useful for high performance MOS devices with good reliability. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.