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.

Cyclical deposition of a variable content titanium silicon nitride layer

Abstract: Embodiments of the invention relate to an apparatus and method of depositing a titanium silicon nitride layer by cyclical deposition. In one aspect, a titanium silicon nitride layer having a variable content or a controlled composition of titanium, silicon, and nitrogen through the depth of the layer may be formed. One embodiment of this variable content titanium silicon nitride layer or tuned titanium silicon nitride layer includes a bottom sub-layer of TiSi X1 N Y1 , a middle sub-layer of TiSi X2 N Y2 , and a top sub-layer of TiSi X3 N Y3 in which X1 is less than X2 and X3 is less than X2. Another embodiment of a variable content titanium silicon nitride layer includes a bottom sub-layer of TiSi X1 N Y1 and a top sub-layer of TiSi X2 N Y2 in which X2 is greater than X1. Still another embodiment of a variable content titanium silicon nitride layer includes a bottom sub-layer of TiSi X1 N Y1 , a middle sub-layer of TiSi X2 N Y2 , and a top sub-layer of TiSi X3 N Y3 in which X1 is greater than X2 and X3 is greater than X2.

Characterization of Leakage and Reliability of SiN x Gate Dielectric by Low-Pressure Chemical Vapor Deposition for GaN-based MIS-HEMTs

Abstract: In this paper, we systematically investigated the leakage and breakdown mechanisms of the low-pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) silicon nitride thin film deposited on AlGaN/GaN heterostructures. The LPCVD-SiN x gate dielectric exhibits low leakage and high breakdown electric field. The dominant mechanism of the leakage current through LPCVD-SiN x gate dielectric is identified to be Poole–Frenkel emission at low electric field and Fowler–Nordheim tunneling at high electric field. Both electric-field-accelerated and temperature-accelerated time-dependent dielectric breakdown of the LPCVD-SiN x gate dielectric were also investigated.

Manufacturing method of semiconductor device

Abstract: Even if the insulated isolation structure which makes element isolation using partial and full isolation combined use technology is manufactured, the manufacturing method of a semiconductor device which can manufacture the semiconductor device with which characteristics good as a semiconductor element formed in the SOI layer where insulated isolation was made are obtained is obtained. Etching to an inner wall oxide film and an SOI layer is performed by using as a mask the resist and trench mask which were patterned, and the trench for full isolation which penetrates an SOI layer and reaches an embedded insulating layer is formed. Although a part of CVD oxide films with which the resist is not formed in the upper part are removed at this time, since a silicon nitride film is protected by the CVD oxide film, the thickness of a silicon nitride film is kept constant. Then, after removing the resist and depositing an isolation oxide film on the whole surface, an isolation oxide film is flattened in good thickness precision in the height specified by the thickness of a silicon nitride film by performing CMP treatment which used the silicon nitride film as the polishing stopper.

Synthesis and characterization of silicon nitride whiskers

Abstract: Silicon nitride whiskers were synthesized by the carbothermal reduction of silica under nitrogen gas flow. The formation of silicon nitride whiskers occurs through a gas-phase reaction, 3SiO(g) + 3CO(g) + 2N2(g ) - Si3N4(/~ ) + 3CO2(g), and the VS mechanism. The generation of SiO gas was enhanced by the application of a halide bath. Various nitrogen flow rates resulted in different whisker yields and morphologies. A suitable gas composition range of N2, SiO and O2 is necessary to make silicon nitride stable and grow in a whisker form. The oxygen partial pressure of the gas phase was measured by an oxygen sensor and the gas phase was analysed for CO/CO2 by gas chromatography. Silicon nitride was first formed as a granule, typically a polycrystalline, and then grown as a single crystal whisker from the {1 00} plane of the granule along the ~2 1 0) direction. The whiskers were identified as/~'-sialon with Z value ranging from 0.8 to 1.1, determined by lattice parameter measurements.

Composition and chemical width of ultrathin amorphous films at grain boundaries in silicon nitride

Abstract: Two different electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) quantitative analytical methods for obtaining complete compositions from interface regions are applied to ultrathin oxide-based amorphous grain boundary (GB) films of ∼ 1 nm thickness in high-purity HIPed Si3N4 ceramics. The first method, 1, is a quantification of the segregation excess at interfaces for all the elements, including the bulk constituents such as silicon and nitrogen; this yields a GB film composition of SiN0.49±1.4O1.02±0.42 when combined with the average film thickness from high resolution electron microscopy (HREM). The second method, II, is based on an EELS near-edge structure (ELNES) analysis of the Si–L 2,3 edge of thin GB films which permits a subtraction procedure that yields a completeEELS spectrum, e.g., that also includes the O–K and N–K edges, explicitly for the GB film. From analysis of these spectra, the film composition is directly obtained as SiN0.63±0.19O1.44±0.33, close to the one obtained by the first method but with much better statistical quality. The improved quality results from the fewer assumptions made in method II; while in method I uniform thickness and illumination condition have to beassumed, and correction of such effects yields an extra systematic error. Method II is convenient as it does not depend on the film thickness detected by HREM, nor suffer from material lost by preferential thinning at the GB. In addition, a chemical width for these films can be deduced as 1.33 ± 0.25 nm, that depends on an estimation of film density based on its composition. Such a chemical width is in good agreement with the structural thickness determined by HREM, with a small difference that is probably due to the different way in which these techniques probe the GB film. The GB film compositions are both nonstoichiometric, but in an opposite sense, this discrepancy is probably due to different ways of treating the surface oxidation layers in both methods.