Silicon nitride

About: Silicon nitride is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 32678 publications have been published within this topic receiving 413599 citations. The topic is also known as: N₄Si₃.

Fabrication of a shallow trench isolation by plasma oxidation

Abstract: The present invention provides a method of fabricating a STI on a wafer to eliminate the common occurrence of junction leakage in the prior art. The method begins by forming a patterned hard mask on a silicon substrate. The patterned hard mask is a laminated layer comprising a pad oxide and a silicon nitride layer, and exposes a portion of the surface of the silicon substrate. The exposed portion of the silicon substrate is then dry etched to form a trench in the silicon substrate having a surface and a surface. Next, a portion of the pad oxide is wet etched around the STI corners of the trench to expose a portion of the top surface of the silicon substrate surrounding the periphery of the trench. A microwave-excited Kr/O 2 plasma is used to oxidize both the interior surface of the trench and the exposed top surface of the silicon substrate located beneath the layer of silicon nitride surrounding the periphery of the trench at a temperature of 400° C. to form a silicon dioxide liner of uniform thickness on the STI surfaces and surface. Finally, an insulating material, such as HDP oxide, is deposited on the silicon substrate to fill in the trench followed by a chemical-mechanical polishing.

Chemical mechanical planarization of shallow trenches in semiconductor substrates.

Abstract: A new method for planarization of shallow trenches is presented. Shallow trenches are patterned into a semiconductor substrate that has been coated with a layer of silicon nitride. A conformal coating of oxide is deposited onto the wafer to fill the trenches. A thin layer of etch-stop silicon and a second layer of oxide are then deposited. The second layer of oxide is patterned with a filler mask using conventional photolithographic techniques and etched to the silicon etch-stop layer, leaving blocks of oxide in the depressions above the trenches and oxide spacers along the sidewalls. Chemical mechanical polishing is then used to polish the oxide back to the silicon nitride. The process offers excellent global planarity, minimal variation in silicon nitride thickness across active areas of varying size and density, and relative insensitivity to chip design.

Frequency effects and properties of plasma deposited fluorinated silicon nitride

Abstract: The properties of low‐hydrogen, fluorinated plasma‐enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) silicon nitride films grown using NF3/SiH4/N2 feed mixtures in 200 kHz and 14 MHz discharges were compared. High‐energy ion bombardment at 200 kHz is expected to enhance surface diffusion and chemical reconstruction. Compared to fluorinated silicon nitride deposited at 14 MHz under otherwise comparable conditions, the 200 kHz films had a lower Si–H bond concentration (≲1×1021 cm−3), lower total hydrogen content (5–8×1021 cm−3), better resistance to oxidation, lower compressive stress (−0.7 to −1.5 Gdyne/cm), and higher density (3.1 g/cm3). The dielectric constant of better low‐frequency Class I films was constant to 500 MHz, while that of high‐frequency films fell up to 15% between 100 Hz and 10 MHz. The absorption edges of low‐frequency PECVD fluorinated silicon nitride films were between 5.0 and 6.1 eV, which compare with 4.4 to 5.6 eV for the high‐excitation frequency fluorinated material and 3 to 4 eV for con...

Thermal characteristics of silicon nitride membranes at sub-Kelvin temperatures

Abstract: We have performed calorimetric measurements on 200 nm thin silicon nitride membranes at temperatures from 0.07 to 1 K. Besides full windows, membranes cut into a thermally isolating suspended bridge geometry were investigated. Based on dc and ac measurements employing normal-metal/insulator/superconductor (NIS) tunnel junctions both as a thermometer and a heater, we report on heat transport and thermal relaxation in silicon nitride films. The bridge structure improves thermal isolation and, consequently, energy sensitivity by two orders of magnitude over those of the full membrane with the same size, and makes such a structure very attractive for bolometric and microrefrigeration applications.

Linear and nonlinear characterization of low-stress high-confinement silicon-rich nitride waveguides.

Abstract: We correct the value for the nonlinear Kerr effect of the silicon-rich nitride waveguide presented in [Opt. Express23, 25828 (20152015)].