Effect of rapid thermal annealing on the properties of μPCVD and PECVD silicon nitride thin films

Thin silicon nitride films have been deposited on p-Si (100) substrates using optimised standard technological conditions in micro pressure chemical vapour deposition (mu PCVD) and plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD) reactors at 760 degrees C and 380 degrees C respectively. The as-deposited films were annealed by rapid thermal annealing (RTA) at 800, 1000, 1200 and 1400 degrees C for varying annealing times: 15 -180 sec. The FTIR spectra showed that the Si-N characteristic peak moves to higher frequencies with annealing temperature increase. The etch rates in concentrated HF acid depends strongly on RTA temperature. The effect of RTA conditions on the dielectric strength, fixed charge density and hysteresis width has been determined.