Various silicon nitride (SiN) films were prepared using plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) by tuning deposition condition to control initial hydrogen in the films. The as-deposited films, which exhibit different tensile stress from 0.2 to 1.2 GPa, were treated by ultraviolet (UV) curing to investigate how the stress and shrinkage response to film initial hydrogen state and how to modify SiN hydrogen state by deposition condition to achieve high tensile stress. The results show that the stress and shrinkage of SiN films response quite differentially to UV curing depending on hydrogen state. Stress of SiN was hardly tuned by UV curing in case of Si-H deficiency, but largely increased in case of balanced Si-H and N-H bonds. Both high and low stress-tunable SiN films were used as contact etch stop layer (CAESL) in 45 nm bulk device. Device performance (I on -I off ) has been improved by about 5% using high stress-tunable SiN film. #
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.