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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 February 2011
Nitric oxide (NO) aided Si0.85Ge0.15 wet-oxynitridation has been performed at 400 700°C, while the wet-NO feed gas was preheated to higher temperatures before entering the reaction zone. X-Ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS) data suggests that both nitrogen and oxygen incorporation increases within the dielectric bulk with increasing wet-oxynitridation temperature, while there is no apparent germanium segregation towards the dielectric/substrate interface at all temperatures studied. Angle-resolved XPS analysis shows that increase in wetoxynitridation temperature above 600°C is likely to volatilize some germanium oxide from the surface region. Nitrogen incorporation is found to hinder germanium segregation. These results are discussed in the context of an overall mechanism of SiGe wet-oxynitridation.