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 Characterization of Surface States at the Si-SiO
Interface Using the Quasi-Static Technique
E. A. Fogels and C. A. T. Salama*
Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto 5, Ontario, Canada

ABSTRACT
The quasi-static technique is used to investigate the effect of processing
parameters on the surface-state density at the s i l i c o n - t h e r m a l l y grown silicon
dioxide interface. The d e t e r m i n a t i o n of the constant required for the e v a l u -
ation of surface potential from e q u i l i b r i u m C-V data is discussed. A rapid
method of estimating the midgap density of surface states is also described.
The dependence of surface-state density on substrate orientation, type of
oxide growth, h i g h - t e m p e r a t u r e a n n e a l i n g in nitrogen, l o w - t e m p e r a t u r e heat
t r e a t m e n t in forming gas, and t e m p e r a t u r e of oxide growth are discussed. The
interdependence b e t w e e n the fixed oxide charge and the surface-state density
is also investigated.

Several methods (1-4) have been developed for the It involves the m e a s u r e m e n t of the C-V characteristics
extraction of surface-state properties at the Si-SiO2 of MOS capacitors u n d e r application of a very slow
interface from m e a s u r e m e n t s of the electrical charac- r a m p bias voltage. This technique is ideally suited for
teristics of MOS ( m e t a l - o x i d e - s e m i c o n d u c t o r ) capaci- surface-state m e a s u r e m e n t s on t h e r m a l l y oxidized sili-
tors. A m o n g these is the integration method (3) which con structures possessing moderate surface-state densi-
can be used in conjunction with low-frequency, t h e r - ties. With a m i n i m u m a m o u n t of i m p l e m e n t a t i o n a n d
mal e q u i l i b r i u m MOS capacitance-voltage data to ob- data processing, the method leads to the d e t e r m i n a -
tain the surface-state d e n s i t y distribution in energy. tion of the density of states over a considerable range
A particular advantage of this method is that the sur- of surface potentials extending from h e a v y inversion
face potential can be determined directly by a simple to heavy accumulation, with a sensitivity of about 10TM
integration of the e x p e r i m e n t a l results. Hence, the states/cm2-eV for energies w i t h i n 0.25 eV of midgap.
errors i n surface-state densities arising from inaccu- The basic equations used in conjunction with the
racies in doping or surface potential, or relating back quasi-static technique are briefly reviewed in this
to ideal curves, are greatly reduced. While not as ac- paper and particular emphasis is placed on the deter-
curate as the conductance method (4), the integration m i n a t i o n of the integration constant required for the
method results in the d e t e r m i n a t i o n of surface-state e v a l u a t i o n of the surface potential from e q u i l i b r i u m
densities over a wider region of the bandgap energy C-V data. A rapid method of obtaining the approximate
w i t h o u t the need for complex conductance m e a s u r e - surface-state density near midgap is also described.
ments. Errors are also m i n i m i z e d because no graphical The quasi-static technique is then used to investigate
differentiation of e x p e r i m e n t a l results is required as the effect of processing p a r a m e t e r s on the surface-state
in the differential (1) and t e m p e r a t u r e (2) methods. density at the Si-SiO2 interface. The effects of some
The successful i m p l e m e n t a t i o n of any low-frequency, of the processing parameters investigated here have
t h e r m a l e q u i l i b r i u m method is directly dependent on been previously reported using other techniques of
w h e t h e r or not the bias and signal voltages are capable surface-state m e a s u r e m e n t which were restricted as to
of creating and m a i n t a i n i n g the semiconductor i n v e r - the energy range covered and the frequency of the
sion layer and the interface surface-state charges in measurement. Both of these limitations are minimized
complete t h e r m a l e q u i l i b r i u m at all times. Deviations in the quasi-static technique. A correlation of the fixed
from t h e r m a l equilibrium, which are commonly ob- oxide charge and the surface-state charge has been
served at low t e m p e r a t u r e s or at high frequencies, included, w h e r e v e r possible, in order to investigate
would completely invalidate any results based on the any common origin for these two charges. The a d v a n -
integration method. tage of the quasi-static technique in such a n investi-
The original i m p l e m e n t a t i o n of the integration gation is that it determines directly the surface-state
method (3) used a phase-lock, l o w - f r e q u e n c y a-c density i n d e p e n d e n t l y of the fixed oxide charge (7).
technique. The difficulty with this i m p l e m e n t a t i o n is
due to the presence of drift in the phase sensitive Analysis
detection system of the lock-in amplifier which i n t r o -
duces large errors in the output signal and therefore The following analysis, due to B e r g l u n d (3), can be
in the calculated surface-state density. F u r t h e r m o r e , used to extract the surface potential and the surface-
the l o w - f r e q u e n c y cutoff of the lock-in amplifier re- state density from the e x p e r i m e n t a l l y determined low-
stricts the m e a s u r e m e n t frequency used in this method frequency (LF) C-V data obtained u n d e r t h e r m a l
to above 1.5 Hz. Such a frequency is often not sufli- e q u i l i b r i u m conditions. The e x p e r i m e n t a l variation of
ciently low to overcome the n o n e q u i l i b r i u m effects surface potential ~s with respect to the oxide voltage
that are a p p a r e n t in samples having typical inversion Vo is given b y 1
layer response times of the order of a second or more.
A more desirable approach is to eliminate the i n -
stabilities associated with the lock-in amplifier and : -- - - 1 [1]
reduce the effective m e a s u r i n g frequency ~, to such a
Csc + qNst CLF
point that 1/~, is much greater t h a n the time constants where Co is the oxide capacitance for u n i t area, Csc is
of the inversion layer and the surface~state charges, the space charge capacitance per u n i t area, Nst is
thus e n s u r i n g that t h e r m a l e q u i l i b r i u m conditions are the density of surface states in c m - 2 - e V -1, q is the
satisfied. This has been achieved using the quasi-static electronic charge, and CLF is the low-frequency, equi-
technique. This technique was first suggested by l i b r i u m MOS capacitance per u n i t area. For an ideal
Castagne (5, 6) and f u r t h e r investigated b y K u h n (7). capacitor with no surface states, Eq. [1] reduces to
* Electrochemical Society Active Member. 1 T h e s u r f a c e p o t e n t i a l ~b8 is g i v e n b y (EF -- E~)/q w h e r e E~ and
K e y words: silicon, passivation, silicon dioxide, semiconductors. E~ are t h e F e r m i a n d i n t r i n s i c e n e r g y l e v e l s r e s p e c t i v e l y .

2002
Vol. 118, No. 12 CHARACTERIZATION OF SURFACE STATES 2003

dq~s ) : Co determines an average value for the additive constant

[2] q~s (Vgl). The surface state density Nst, as a function of
(---~--~o r Cs~ q~s, is then obtained from Eq. [3].
For a k n o w n substrate doping and oxide capacitance, ApproximateSurface-State DensityNear Midgap
Eq. [2] can be evaluated theoretically for a n y ~ . The
surface-state density can t h e n be d e t e r m i n e d from the For q u a l i t y control purposes, it is often sufficient to
following equation obtain a single value of the surface-state density, Nst,
at some point such as the m i n i m u m of the LF C-V
d~s ) characteristic and assume that this value is representa-
tive of the effective density.
1 T Assuming a u n i f o r m surface-state density, the m i n -
Nst = -- 1 C~ [3]
dq~s ) ima of the ideal (theoretical) and e x p e r i m e n t a l low-
frequency C - ~s characteristics [curves (a) a n d (b)
respectively in Fig. 1] occur at the same value, ~'~, of
surface potential in the light inversion region near
The surface potential Cs(V~2) at a n y gate voltage
midgap. 5 The difference in the m i n i m u m capacitance
Vo_~ can be determined w i t h i n an additive constant
between the two curves can be directly related to the
q~(Vg~) from the integral (3) 2
surface-state density, N'st. This observation allows the
fVge ( CLF density of states near midgap (where they are most
Cs(V~D = ~v~ ,,1 ~ ) dVg + r [4] effective as r e c o m b i n a t i o n centers) to be evaluated
using the following equations:
The m i n i m u m space charge capacitance C'sc is given
The method of evaluating the constant, suggested by
Berglund (3), is to match the e x p e r i m e n t a l and theo- by Eq. [9]
retical dr curves in the a c c u m u l a t i o n region 9s [cosh (fl~b) ] '/=
where the effect of surface states can be neglected. The CPsc
matching points must be judiciously chosen to give LDi 1 -b 0.542 (fl~bb) -- 0.0115 ('sq~b)2
accurate results. If the matching is attempted in a re-
for (M~b) < 2 1 [9]
gion of h e a v y accumulation where Csc is v e r y large,
then CLF "~ Co and the value of (dq~s/dVo)E becomes where LD~ is the intrinsic Debye length. F r o m Eq. [1],
i m m e a s u r a b l y small a n d is obscured b y any error ACLF the surface-state density N'st at the m i n i m u m of the
in the measured value of eLF. On the other hand, if C - ~ characteristic is then given b y
matching is attempted in the region of light a c c u m u l a -
tion (near flat b a n d ) , C~c m a y be comparable to qNst N' Co + C ' sc [ C oC' sc ]
and again error in ~s(Vgl) m a y result. Assuming that q st-- ----'-- C'LF C' [10]
the error in d e t e r m i n i n g ~ (Vgt) is to be limited to hr Co-- C'LF Co+ sc
then the o p t i m u m range of ~s useful for m a t c h i n g can
where C'L~ is the m i n i m u m l o w - f r e q u e n c y capacitance
be obtained b y first solving the following equations for
limits on Csc obtained from the e x p e r i m e n t a l C-V or C -- ~s charac-
teristic. The second term in the brackets in Eq. [10] is
Cox fl A~s the m i n i m u m theoretical l o w - f r e q u e n c y capacitance.
Csc (upper limit) : [5]
2 (ACLF/CLF) I n general, the surface-state density is not u n i f o r m
over the whole energy gap and the m i n i m a of the ideal
2qNst and e x p e r i m e n t a l C - Cs curves will not coincide, as
Cs~(lower limit) -- - - [6] shown in Fig. 1. The value of surface-state density ob-
/3 ~ s tained from Eq. [10] then will be in error. However,
where /~ = q/kT. 3 Once the limits on Csc are deter- for typical MOS devices, the surface-state distribution
m i n e d from Eq. [5] a n d [6], the corresponding values is fairly constant near midgap and good accuracy
of r can be determined for a n n - t y p e semiconductor
(in the heavy accumulation region) from (8) ( r.D,-c,, )~.
5 V/, = 1/fl c o s h -a ,
Es

Csc ~ ~ exp [7]

LDe
w h e r e LDe is the extrinsic Debye length and es is the Vexperimeni'al" LF C-"u
semiconductor dielectric constant. The b u l k potential curves for :
@5is given b y
non u n i f o r m Nst
1 N
,r = -- :In ~ [8]
,8 ni
where N is the b u l k donor doping density and n~ is
the intrinsic density.
The surface-state distribution in energy in our i n -
vestigation is d e t e r m i n e d by a computer program 4
whose i n p u t consists of the substrate doping density
N, the oxide capacitance Co, and a p o i n t - b y - p o i n t eval- CLF
/
\
t

- _ '\~'~- ...... ~ / ./
I

uation of the e x p e r i m e n t a l L F capacitance-voltage

characteristics. The program solves Eq. [1] and [2] for , ',\ id..
the e x p e r i m e n t a l and theoretical values of d~JdVo, CLF . . . . . ~-':--r--- I ~ j'"-curv, for
matches these two curves over the range of surface
potentials obtained from Eq. [5], [6], and [7], and
CoCsc-- '~)'~'1~Propor::: :
2 I d e a l l y , i f Eq. [4] is e v a l u a t e d f r o m h e a v y a c c u m u l a t i o n t o
h e a v y i n v e r s i o n , t h e i n t e g r a l s h o u l d g i v e a v a l u e f o r Ca ( V g 2 ) --
c , ,o qN., ,o)
~8(Vuz) e q u a l t o , o r s l i g h t l y less t h a n , t h e b a n d g a p e n e r g y . A I
v a l u e greater than the energy gap indicates that gross n o n u n i -
f o r t u i t i e s a r e p r e s e n t e i t h e r i n t h e o x i d e or a t t h e o x i d e - s e m i c o n -
d u c t o r i n t e r f a c e a n d t h e a n a l y s i s can n o l o n g e r be a p p l i e d (3).
3 I n Eq. [5], (ACLF/CLF) is t h e e f f e c t i v e a c c u r a c y i n t h e m e a - SURFACE POTENTIAL ~Fs
s u r e m e n t of CLV. I n Eq. [6], t h e v a l u e of Nst is set a t 1 0 N ' , t , w h e r e
N',t is t h e a p p r o x i m a t e d e n s i t y o f s t a t e s n e a r m i d g a p as d e t e r m i n e d Fig. I. Effect of uniform and nonuniform density of states on the
f r o m Eq. [10]. T h e v a l u e 1O/V'at r e p r e s e n t s a w o r s t case c o n d i t i o n .
A v a i l a b l e on request. C-~s characteristics.
2004 J. EZectrochem. Soe.: SOLID STATE SCIENCE December 1971
(within _ 10%) can be obtained. The validity of this I
method is illustrated in the following sections.
S~." n - t y p e , 5J't-cm,(tO0]
Experimental Techniques C'~co Co: 0.055 pF/cm z
The i m p l e m e n t a t i o n of the quasi-static technique a: 50 mv/sec
used in this investigation is similar to the one de- hO
scribed b y K u h n (7). It involves the m e a s u r e m e n t of
the MOS capacitor displacement c u r r e n t density, Jc,
in response to a linear gate-voltage ramp, Vg = at. The
0.8
l o w - f r e q u e n c y capacitance, eLF, is related to the dis-
placement c u r r e n t density b y Je = aCLF. m

Measurements of surface-state densities at the Si-

SiO~ interface were carried out on suitably prepared 0.6
MOS capacitors. The silicon used in this work was in u

the form of polished circular slices (Monsanto), 2.5

cm in diameter, prepared by the Czochralski method. 0.4
The dislocation count was specified to be less t h a n 103
cm -2. The slices used were n - t y p e (phosphorus q I I I I
doped), of both (100) and (111) orientation, having -4 -2 0 +2 +4
resistivities r a n g i n g from 3 to 10 ohm-cm. The polished GATE VOLTAGE, Vg(vol*=}
silicon wafers were degreased and carefully cleaaed
(10) prior to oxidation. Fig. 2. LF thermal equilibrium C-V characteristics (oxide
Oxidation was generally carried out immediately growth, dry; growth temperature, 1100~ N2 anneal, ]]|O~ far
after cleaning. Dry or wet (95~ water) oxides were 30 min; H2 anneal, 450~ for 30 min after metallizatian).
grown in a resistively heated furnace provided with a
quartz tube and an a l u m i n a liner. Both the nitrogen
and oxygen gases were derived from liquid sources. I I I I I ' ' ' '
After oxidation and h i g h - t e m p e r a t u r e a n n e a l i n g (if
necessary), the slices were rapidly ( < 3 sec) quenched
to room temperature. A n n e a l i n g was carried out either
at the oxidation temperature, in the case of N2, or at , IOn
450~ in the case of forming gas. The thickness of the N

films was measured using a Talystep capable of _ 20A E 8

accuracy. Typical oxide thicknesses used in this i n -
vestigation ranged from 800 to 1500A. = 6
The MOS structures were completed by evaporating
a l u m i n u m (99.999%) field plates, 1000A thick, 500 ~m g 4
in diameter, over the oxide through a metal mask. A l u - estimate)
m i n u m was also evaporated on the bare back side of
the silicon to produce a n ohmic contact. The evapora-
Z
tions were carried out from a resistively heated, pre- I I I i I i I I I
fired, t u n g s t e n filament in a v a c u u m of 3 • 10 -~ Torr. -0.4 -0.2 0 +0.2 +0.4
After metallization, the o v e r - a l l oxide quality was
assessed b y measuring the fixed oxide charge, Qss, and ~S (volts)
the mobile ionic charge, Qo, using h i g h - f r e q u e n c y
(HF) C-V m e a s u r e m e n t s and bias t e m p e r a t u r e (BT) Fig. 3. Surface-state density vs. surface potential for the sample
stress techniques. All of the samples investigated ex- shown in Fig. 2.
hibited m i n i m a l shift u n d e r BT stress at 150~ + 10V
for 10 m i n indicating no ionic contamination. The t y p i -
lowing processing parameters was investigated: (a)
cal values of Q~s observed r a n g e d from 0.6 • 1011 to
substrate orientation and type of oxide growth, ( b )
4 X 1011 cm -2, depending on the oxide growth and a n -
h i g h - t e m p e r a t u r e a n n e a l i n g in nitrogen, (c) l o w - t e m -
n e a l i n g temperatures. The HF C-V characteristics
p e r a t u r e heat t r e a t m e n t in forming gas, (d) t e m p e r a -
were also used to determine the effective substrate
ture of oxide growth and fixed oxide charge, Qss.
doping and the oxide capacitance.
The dependence of surface-state densities on orienta-
After assessing the densities of extraneous charges, tion of the silicon substrate was evaluated using both
the surface-state density was determined. Figure 2
dry a n d wet oxides. The typical surface-state densities
shows a typical C-V characteristic obtained at a bias
obtained using dry oxides grown at ll00~ on (111)
sweep rate of 50 mV/sec. A factor of ten increase in and (100) oriented slices are shown in Fig. 4 [curves
the bias sweep rate resulted in negligible change in (a) and ( b ) ] . As expected, the (100) p l a n e shows the
the C-V characteristics, indicating that the ~required lowest over-all density of states. Similar results were
e q u i l i b r i u m was obtained. For this particular sample, obtained using wet oxides, as shown in Fig. 4 [curves
the matching of the e x p e r i m e n t a l and theoretical d~s/ (c) and (d) ] ; however, in general the density of states
dVo was done for ~ b e t w e e n 0.375 and 0.430V, assum- was lower for wet t h a n for dry oxides. The lower
ing A~s < kT/2q and ACLF/CLF -~- 0.01. The corre- density of states in wet oxides is a t t r i b u t e d to the
sponding surface-state density is shown in Fig. 3.
a n n i h i l a t i o n of states by r a p i d l y migrating and highly
The usefulness of the approximate method of deter-
active hydrogen species originating from the water
m i n i n g n e a r midgap surface-state densities was veri-
vapor. These results are in general agreement with
fied for this sample. The value of N'st was 5.4 • 1010
those obtained by Brown (2), Nicollian (4), and A r -
states/cm2-eV, which is within 10% of the midgap
value of 6 • 1010 states/cm2-eV obtained from com- nold (11).
The effect of nitrogen a n n e a l i n g at ll00~ on d r y -
puter calculations. For comparison purposes, some of grown oxides was investigated for both (100) a n d
the surface-state density plots in the next section show (111) oriented slices. Whereas previous to annealing
the estimated Nst as obtained from Eq. [10]. I n most the densities of surface states were quite different on
cases, good agreement b e t w e e n N'st a n d the actual (100) and (111) slices, as shown in Fig. 4, after a n -
density of states was obtained. n e a l i n g the densities were not only reduced consider-
Experimental Results and Discussion ably for both orientations b u t also approached ap-
A large n u m b e r of MOS samples were prepared and proximately the same value near midgap, as shown
the dependence of surface-state densities on the fol- in Fig. 5 [curves (a), ( b ) ] . F u r t h e r m o r e , the midgap
Vol. 118, No. 12 CHARACTERIZATION OF SURFACE STATES 2005

I I I I 1 I I I I
' ' ' ' I ' ' ' '
6 Si: n - t ~ j p e , 5~-cm

1012 Si: n - t ~ j p e , 5 [ t - c m , ( l O 0 ) m
;.8

_ -

Z
et. I0"
4
8
Nst .... 6 (d)~
I I ! I I I I I I
i
-0.4 -0.2 0 +0.2 +0.4
-0.4 -0.2 0 * 0.2 + 0.4
% (volts)
% (volts)
Fig. 4. Dependence of surface-state density v s . surface potential Fig. 6. Effect of annealing in forming gas (oxide growth tempera-
on orientation and type of oxide growth. (Oxide growth tempera- ture, 1100~ oxide thickness ~___ 1000.~). (a) no anneal; (b) H2
ture, |]O0~ oxide thickness ~-~ |000/'~; no annealing). anneal, 450~ for 30 rain prior to metallization, (c) H2 anneal,
450~ for 30 min after metallization; (d) N2 anneal, 1100~ for
30 rain followed by H2 anneal, 450~ for 30 rain after metalliza-
I I I I I I t I I tion).

4 - S;: n - t i . j p e , 5.P,-cm
following conditions: (a) wet grown oxide + a l u m i -
, n u m metallization, (b) wet g r o w n oxide + f o r m i n g
gas heat t r e a t m e n t + a l u m i n u m metallization, (c) wet
.% 2 -I\ \ / (,ooze, g r o w n oxide + a l u m i n u m metallization + forming gas
22 dr• _ heat treatment.
Curves (a), (b) a n d (c) in Fig. 6 show that heat
t r e a t m e n t of wet oxides in f o r m i n g gas in the presence
of a reactive m e t a l such as a l u m i n u m is the most ef-
I012 fective in reducing the surface-state density. The re-
~, 8 duction in surface-state densities after forming-gas
heat t r e a t m e n t is a t t r i b u t e d to adsorption of active
z 6
hydrogen at the Si-SiO2 interface. The a l u m i n u m (15-
17) causes a f u r t h e r reduction in surface-state density
4 - Nst--~"J by reacting with w a t e r adsorbed at the oxide surface
d u r i n g the heat treatment. Hydrogen is released and
I I I I I I I I I migrates to the Si-SiO2 interface. This h y d r o g e n
-0.4 -0.2 0 + 0.2 § 0.4 (atomic or ionic) is thus available for b o n d i n g to a n y
% (volts) uncompensated bonds which are believed to be a pos-
sible origin of fast states at t h a t interface. As the
Fig. 5. Effect of N2 annealing on surface-state density in dry dangling bonds are saturated, the density of fast states
grown oxides (oxide growth temperature, 1100~ N2 anneal at is reduced. It has been postulated (18) that ionic Si
1100~ for 30 min; oxide thickness ~ 1000A). centers acting either as acceptor or donor states m a y
be reduced according to the reaction
densities observed were close to those obtained on u n - Si + H ~ S i -- H
a n n e a l e d wet oxides of either orientation. However,
the total density of states integrated over the b a n d g a p However, S i - - H bonds are not stable at elevated t e m -
was still lowest for wet, u n a n n e a l e d oxides on (100) peratures. This explains w h y l o w - t e m p e r a t u r e heat-
orientation slices. t r e a t m e n t s reduce the surface-state density even in
Nitrogen a n n e a l i n g was also observed to reduce the w e t - g r o w n oxides where hydrogen is expected to be
fixed oxide charge Qss (12) at the Si-SiO2 interface. plentiful.
This reduction is the result of traps, induced b y a n - Also shown in Fig. 6, curve (d), is the surface-state
n e a l i n g (13, 14), competing with the oxide-silicon i n - density for a dry oxide grown at ll00~ a n d subjected
terface for electrons donated b y the ionic silicon.6 to a nitrogen a n n e a l at the growth t e m p e r a t u r e and
Trapped electrons effectively decrease the net fixed then to a forming-gas a n n e a l at 450~ after a l u m i n u m
oxide charge Qss m e a s u r e d b y the H F C-V technique. metallization. This combination of anneals resulted in
The effect of l o w - t e m p e r a t u r e heat t r e a t m e n t of ox- the lowest midgap surface-state density (6 • 10l0
ides in forming gas (5% H2, 95% N2) at 450~ was c m - L e V -1) as well as the lowest fixed oxide charge
also investigated by comparing the surface-state densi- (6 • 101~ cm -2) observed in this investigation and
ties observed on (100) oriented substrates u n d e r the appears to be the o p t i m u m processing method of ob-
t a i n i n g both low oxide charge and low surface-state
These t r a p s a r e also able to i n t e r a c t w i t h s o d i u m donor s i t e s density.
b y t r a p p i n g the s o d i u m electrons a n d h e n c e localizing a n y m o b i l e
s o d i u m ions. T h i s e x p l a i n s the e x p e r i m e n t a l l y o b s e r v e d i m p r o v e - The effect of t e m p e r a t u r e of oxidation on the sur-
m e n t in s t a b i l i t y of s o d i u m - c o n t a m i n a t e d s a m p l e s a f t e r n i t r o g e n face-state density was also investigated using d r y ox-
a n n e a l i n g , a l t h o u g h the total s o d i u m c o n c e n t r a t i o n in t h e s a m p l e
r e m a i n e d fixed. ides grown at 900% 1000% a n d ll00~ on (100) orien-
2006 J. Electrochem. Sac.: S O L I D S T A T E SCIENCE D e c e m b e r 1971

I i I I I , i I I w i t h o u t affecting the other. The l a c k of a m o r e explicit

correlation b e t w e e n the two charges suggests t h a t t h e y
~ 6 V~ S{: n-tLJPe, 5J't-cm,(100~(/A m a y not have a single common origin. It is p e r h a p s
possible t h a t two or more discrete mechanisms con-
t r i b u t e to the s u r f a c e - s t a t e density, only one of which
correlates w i t h the fixed oxide charge (11).
Acknowledgments

N This w o r k was s u p p o r t e d by the Defense Research

B o a r d of Canada ( G r a n t 5566-34) and b y the N a -
tional Research Council of Canada ( G r a n t A-4408).
4-"

KiT -
The authors wish to t h a n k Mrs. S. Trettin for assist-
ance in the s a m p l e preparation. G r a t e f u l a c k n o w l e d g -
ments are also m a d e to the National Research Council
of C a n a d a for a p o s t g r a d u a t e b u r s a r y a w a r d e d to one
of the authors (E. A. F.).
M a n u s c r i p t s u b m i t t e d Feb. 1, 1971; revised m a n u -
script received ca. May 6, 1971.
I I I I I I I I I
-0.4 -0.2 0 + 0.2 * 0.4 A n y discussion of this p a p e r will a p p e a r in a Dis-
cussion Section to be published in the J u n e 1972
% (volts) JOURNAL.
REFERENCES
Fig. 7. Effect of dry oxide growth temperature on the surface 1. I~ M. Terman, Solid-State Electron., 5, 285 (1962).
state density (oxide thickness ~ 1GO0,~,;no anneal). 2. D. M. B r o w n and P. V. Gray, This Journal, 115,
760 (1968).
3. C. N. Berglund, IEEE Trans. ED, ED-13, 701 (1966).
t a t e d slices. The results, shown in Fig. 7, indicate no 4. E. H. Nicollian and A. Goetzberger, Bell Syst. Tech.
a p p r e c i a b l e dependence of surface states on g r o w t h J., 46, 1055 (1967).
t e m p e r a t u r e . On the other hand, the fixed oxide charge, 5. R. Castagne, Compt. Rend. Acad. Sci. ( P a r / s ) , 267,
Q~s, was observed to decrease w i t h increasing t e m p e r a - 866 (1968).
ture of oxidation in a g r e e m e n t w i t h the results of 6. R. Castagne, ibid., 267, 1000 (1988).
7. M. Kuhn, Solid-State Electron., 13, 873 (1970).
Deal et al. (12). 8. K. H. Zaininger, Semiconductor Surface Physics,
G o e t z b e r g e r et al. (19) have p o s t u l a t e d a c o m m o n in F i e l d Effect Transistors, J. T. W a l l m a r k and
origin for the fixed oxide charge and the s u r f a c e - s t a t e H. Johnson, Editors, P r e n t i c e Hall, Englewood
charge. Evidence in favor of this postulate include: Cliffs, N. J. (1963).
9. D. R. F r a n k l , Solid-State Electron., 2, 71 (1961).
(a) the fact that the s u r f a c e - s t a t e density and the 10. W. K e r n and D. Puotinen, RCA Rev., 31, 187 (1970).
surface charge have the same c r y s t a l l o g r a p h i c 11. E. A m o l d , J. Ladell, and G. Abowitz, Appl. Phys.
d e p e n d e n c e as d e m o n s t r a t e d b y A r n o l d et al. Letters, 13, 413 (1968).
12. B. E. Deal, M. Sklar, A. S. Grove, and E. A. Snow,
(11), and This Journal, 114, 266 (1967).
(b) the results obtained in this investigation w i t h 13. F. M. F o w k e s and T. E. Burgess, ibid., 116, 126C
h i g h - t e m p e r a t u r e nitrogen a n n e a l i n g which r e - (1969).
duces both Qss and Nst. 14. F. M. F o w k e s and T. E. Burgess, Surface Sci., 13,
184 (1969).
However, h y d r o g e n annealing, as shown, reduces the 15. P. Balk, This Journal, 112, 69C (1965).
s u r f a c e - s t a t e d e n s i t y w i t h o u t affecting the oxide 16. P. L. Castro and B. E. Deal, ibid., 118, 280 (1971).
charge. Similarly, the oxide g r o w t h t e m p e r a t u r e a p - 17. B. E. Deal, E. L. MacKenna, and P. L. Castro, ibid.,
116, 997 (1969).
p e a r s to have little affect on the surface-state d e n s i t y 18. E. Kooi, Phillips Res. Rept., 21, 477 (1966).
while reducing the oxide charge. Hence, it is evident 19. A. Goetzberger, H. Heine, and E. H. Nicollian,
t h a t some processing p a r a m e t e r s affect one charge Appl. Phys. Letters, 12, 95 (1968).

Characterization of Multilevel Interconnection Defects

R. H. Cox* and H. Hentzschel *'z
Texas Instruments Incorporated, Dallas, Texas 75222

ABSTRACT
Scanning electron microscopy and m e t a l l u r g i c a l sectioning w e r e combined
to detect defects and potential r e l i a b i l i t y p r o b l e m s at crossovers and f e e d -
throughs in m u l t i l e v e l circuits. The e x t r e m e l y large d e p t h of field of the scan-
ning electron microscope p e r m i t t e d " o n - e d g e " e x a m i n a t i o n of the sample s u r -
face topography, while m e t a l l u r g i c a l cross-sectioning allowed e x a m i n a t i o n of
b u r i e d layers. This m e t h o d is a v e r y p o w e r f u l tool for characterizing m u l t i -
level i n t e g r a t e d circuits.

The a d v e n t of large scale i n t e g r a t i o n (LSI) has r e - the unit cells of an L S I array, and t h e y are i n t e r c o n -
sulted in electronic components w h i c h have consider- nected utilizing a m u l t i l e v e l system formed b y i n t e r -
a b l y g r e a t e r functional c a p a b i l i t y t h a n the basic in- leaving layers of m e t a l and insulation over t h e basic
t e g r a t e d circuit. Conventional i n t e g r a t e d circuits are i n t e g r a t e d circuit. M e d i u m scale integration (MSI)
* E l e c t r o c h e m i c a l Society A c t i v e M e m b e r .
lies in b e t w e e n i n t e g r a t e d circuits and L S I in com-
1 P r e s e n t a d d r e s s : Bosch, A.G., G e r m a n y . plexity. In some cases, MSI can be achieved w i t h one
K e y w o r d s : m u l t i l e v e l i n t e r c o n n e c t i o n defects, L S I (large scale level of interconnection, b u t frequently, a t w o - l e v e l
i n t e g r a t i o n ) , s c a n n i n g electron microscopy, optical microscopy, m e t -
allography. interconnection system is employed. In o r d e r to achieve