Ultra-shallow nitrogen plasma implantation for ultra-thin silicon oxynitride (SiOxNy) layer formation

The radiation damage caused by low energy r.f. plasmas has not been, to our knowledge, studied so far in the case of symmetric planar plasma reactors that are usually used for PECVD processes. The reason is that, unlike nonsymmetrical RIE reactors, such geometry prevents, basically, high-energy ion bombardment of the substrate. In this work, we present the results of experiments in which we have studied the influence of plasma processing on the state of silicon surface. Very low temperature plasma oxidation has been used as a test of silicon surface condition. The obtained layers were then carefully measured by spectroscopic ellipsometry, allowing not only the thickness to be determined accurately, but also the layer composition to be evaluated. Different plasma types, namely N2, NH3 and Ar, were used in the first stage of the experiment, allowing oxidation behaviour caused by the exposure to those plasma types to be compared in terms of relative differences. It has been clearly proved that even though the PECVD system is believed to be relatively safe in terms of radiation damage, in the case of very thin layer processing (e.g., ultra-thin oxynitride layers) the effects of radiation damage may considerably affect the kinetics of the process and the properties of the formed layers.