Quantitative analysis of hydrogen in SiO{sub 2}/SiN/SiO{sub 2} stacks using atom probe tomography

Journal Article · Fri Apr 15 00:00:00 EDT 2016 · AIP Advances

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4948558· OSTI ID:22611664

Kunimune, Yorinobu; Shimada, Yasuhiro; Sakurai, Yusuke; Katayama, Toshiharu; Ide, Takashi ^[1]; Inoue, Masao; Nishida, Akio ^[2]; Han, Bin; Tu, Yuan; Takamizawa, Hisashi; Shimizu, Yasuo; Inoue, Koji; Nagai, Yasuyoshi ^[3]; Yano, Fumiko ^[4]

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1. Technology Division, Renesas Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd., Ibaraki 312-8504 (Japan)
2. Device Technology Division, Renesas Electronics Corporation, Ibaraki 312-8504 (Japan)
3. The Oarai Center, Institute for Materials Research, Tohoku University, Ibaraki 311-1313 (Japan)
4. Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo 152-8552 (Japan)

We have demonstrated that it is possible to reproducibly quantify hydrogen concentration in the SiN layer of a SiO{sub 2}/SiN/SiO{sub 2} (ONO) stack structure using ultraviolet laser-assisted atom probe tomography (APT). The concentration of hydrogen atoms detected using APT increased gradually during the analysis, which could be explained by the effect of hydrogen adsorption from residual gas in the vacuum chamber onto the specimen surface. The amount of adsorbed hydrogen in the SiN layer was estimated by analyzing another SiN layer with an extremely low hydrogen concentration (<0.2 at. %). Thus, by subtracting the concentration of adsorbed hydrogen, the actual hydrogen concentration in the SiN layer was quantified as approximately 1.0 at. %. This result was consistent with that obtained by elastic recoil detection analysis (ERDA), which confirmed the accuracy of the APT quantification. The present results indicate that APT enables the imaging of the three-dimensional distribution of hydrogen atoms in actual devices at a sub-nanometer scale.

• OSTI ID: 22611664
• Journal Information: AIP Advances, Vol. 6, Issue 4; Other Information: (c) 2016 Author(s); Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 2158-3226
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
ACCURACY
ADSORPTION
APPROXIMATIONS
ATOMS
CONCENTRATION RATIO
DETECTION
DISTRIBUTION
HYDROGEN
LASER RADIATION
LAYERS
PROBES
SILICON
SILICON NITRIDES
SILICON OXIDES
STACKS
SURFACES
THREE-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
THREE-DIMENSIONAL LATTICES
TOMOGRAPHY
ULTRAVIOLET RADIATION