Electrical properties of silicon nitride films grown on a SiGe layer by distributed electron cyclotron resonance plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition

Abstract Silicon nitride films have been deposited on relaxed Si 0.83 Ge 0.17 films using distributed electron resonance plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition without intentional substrate heating. The electrical properties of metal–insulator–semiconductor structures have been investigated. The electrical properties are strong functions of the post-processing treatment. The hysteresis of C–V curves can be reduced significantly after 30 min post-metallization annealing at 450 °C in forming gas. The flat-band voltage is then very low, thereby indicating that positive charges retained in the silicon nitride films are compensated for by negative charges located at the interface with the SiGe alloy. Conduction properties have also been analyzed from I–V measurements. A critical field of ≈2 MV cm −1 and a high resistivity of ≈2×10 15 Ω cm have been obtained. For higher electric fields, the leakage current is governed by a Poole–Frenkel conduction mechanism.