He plus remote plasma nitridation of ultra-thin gate oxide for deep submicron CMOS technology applications

The study of He plus remote plasma nitridation (RPN) technology for an ultra-thin gate dielectric in the 18-22 /spl Aring/ range is reported. Experimental results show that He can enhance the RPN process to reduce the gate current and effective thickness of gate dielectric films, especially for thinner gate dielectric films. In addition, the He plus RPN process allows the integrity of the ultra-thin gate dielectric film to be retained even in a high-density plasma environment.