Effects Of Rapid Thermal Processing On Device Reliability

Device reliability is an important issue for the introduction of a new process technique. In this paper, our experimental findings regarding the performance and stability of devices fabricated by rapid thermal processing (RTP) are presented. Test structures for this study include p-n junction diode, metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) capacitor, and n-channel MOS field-effect-transistor (MOSFET). The integrity of p-n junction is found to be wellpreserved by RTP. Charge trapping in the gate oxide of MOS capacitor is highly dependent on the RTP temperature and can be reduced to the level of furnace processed capacitor at higher temperature RTP condition. The performance of fresh n-channel MOSFET fabricated by RTP can be superior to conventional furnace processed ones. However, higher substrate current and charge trapping in the gate oxide of RTP processed devices cause slightly higher device instability as compared to the furnace annealed devices after accelerated stress.