Lightly N/sub 2/O nitrided dielectrics grown in a conventional furnace for E/sup 2/PROM and 0.25 /spl mu/m CMOS

For deep-submicron CMOS transistors and FLOTOX E/sup 2/PROM devices a considerable improvement in reliability and performance can be achieved when nitrided dielectrics are used. We developed an N/sup 2/O nitridation technology for a conventional furnace. Oxidation and nitridation are done in one run with a two-step and low-thermal budget processing to grow a dielectric layer with a thickness of 6-10 nm. >