Electrical depth profiling in thin SiON layers

摘要

The internal structure of SiON films is extracted electrically, demonstrating an efficient, noncontact, nondestructive means for depth compositional analysis in gate oxides. The electrical data, obtained using x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) based controlled surface charging (CSC), are compared with independent time of flight secondary ion mass spectroscopy and angle resolved XPS data. Inhomogeneous composition with significant nitrogen enrichment at the top of the oxide layer is observed. Capabilities of the CSC method in treating heterostructures of poor chemical contrast are discussed.