Atomic force microscopy local oxidation of silicon nitride thin films for mask fabrication

Abstract

Silicon nitride thin films deposited on silicon substrates are patterned by using atomic force microscopy (AFM) local oxidation nanolithography. The mechanism of the AFM-induced oxidation is studied by analysing the kinetics of the oxidation and by studying the electrical current during the oxidation process. We observe that the silicon substrate and the silicon nitride layer are simultaneously modified. Because of the significant technological relevance of silicon nitride film, the technique is applied for fabricating masks with nanometre-scale features by transferring the pattern to the silicon substrate.

Microscopic modeling of the dielectric properties of silicon nitride

“…3,4 Silicon nitride is also widely employed in the semiconductor industry for surface passivation, protection to prevent oxidation and damage, and as a mask for local oxidation. [5][6][7] In addition to these applications, Si 3 N 4 is receiving attention as a possible candidate material to either replace or be alloyed with SiO 2 and be part of high-κ stack of dielectric films, which are used to prevent leakage currents in modern CMOS transistors. Indeed Si 3 N 4 has a higher dielectric constant than that of SiO 2 and thus it may be a good candidate to prevent or reduce tunneling-induced currents.…”

Characterization of Epitaxial Layers Using Scanning Microwave Microscopy

“…These ultra-thin layers have great potential in the industry, e.g. as diffusion barrier in electrical components fabrication [1]. These layers are also commonly used in semiconductor industry.…”

Few layered MoS2lithography with an AFM tip: description of the technique and nanospectroscopy investigations

“…In the last decade, the discovery of graphene 1 Microscope tip, which has been widely used for nanopatterning of silicon, silicon nitride and titanium surfaces [2][3][4][5][6][7][8] , has been reported to be an effective method to nanolithograph the graphene flakes in order to obtain "nanoribbons" 9,10 . In this way, a bandgap can be opened and it scales with the inverse of the nanoribbons width [11][12][13] .…”