Oxynitride semiconductors

Gate oxide dielectrics are a cmcial element in the down-scaling of n- and -channel metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSEETs) in CMOS technology. Ultrathin dielectric films are required, and the 12.0-nm thick layers are expected to shrink to 6.0 nm by the year 2000 (2). Gate dielectrics have been made by growing thermal oxides, whereas development has turned to the use of oxide/nitride/oxide (ONO) sandwich stmctures, or to oxynitrides, SiO N. Oxynitrides are formed by growing thermal oxides in the presence of a nitrogen source such as ammonia or nitrous oxide, N2O. Oxidation and nitridation are also performed in rapid thermal processors (RTP), which reduce the temperature exposure of a substrate. 

Dielectric Deposition Systems. The most common techniques used for dielectric deposition include chemical vapor deposition (CVD), sputtering, and spin-on films. In a CVD system thermal or plasma energy is used to decompose source molecules on the semiconductor surface (189). In plasma-enhanced CVD (PECVD), typical source gases include silane, SiH, and nitrous oxide, N2O, for deposition of siUcon nitride. The most common CVD films used are siUcon dioxide, siUcon nitride, and siUcon oxynitrides. 

Materials made of siHcon nitride, siHcon oxynitride, or sialon-bonded siHcon carbide have high thermal shock and corrosion resistance and may be used for pump parts, acid spray nozzles, and in aluminum reduction ceUs (156—159). A very porous siHcon carbide foam has been considered for surface combustion burner plates and filter media. It can also be used as a substrate carrying materials such as boron nitride as planar diffusion source for semiconductor doping appHcations. 

Phosphorus oxynitride, PON, is a useful starting product, as a phosphorus and nitrogen source, to prepare various nitridooxophos-phates, in particular phosphorus oxynitride glass compositions (211). Moreover, it shows as a material excellent chemical stability with potential applications in several domains. In microelectronics, for example, PON has been used to form by evaporation insulating films for the passivation of III-V InP substrates and the elaboration of MIS (metal-insulator-semiconductor) structures (190, 212-215). PON could have also valuable properties in flame retardancy (176,191,216). 

Progress in the design and fabrication of high-quality optical microresonators is closely related to the development of novel optical materials and technologies. The key material systems used for microresonator fabrication include silica, silica on silicon, silicon, silicon on insulator, silicon nitride and oxynitride, polymers, semiconductors such as GaAs, InP, GalnAsP, GaN, etc, and crystalline materials such as lithium niobate and calcium fluoride. Table 2 smnmarises the optical characteristics of these materials (see Eldada, 2000, 2001 Hillmer, 2003 Poulsen, 2003 for more detail). 

In the case of alloys, we will consider, in turn, metal oxides, metal chalcogenides and, finally, Group III-V semiconductors. We have seen earlier (Sections 6.3 and 7) how non-metallic elements such as F, N and S can alloy with the metal oxide lattice, these species occupying anion sites within the host framework. The corresponding oxyfluoride, oxynitride and oxysulfide compounds are thus generated (Section 7). 

Titanium oxynitride nanoparticles were prepared by Gole [2] and used in solar cells and as a semiconductor-based photocatalytic component in fuel cells. 

In this process, the substrate is placed inside a reactor supplied by different gases [21], The principle of the process is that a chemical reaction takes place between the source gases producing a solid material which condenses on all surfaces inside the reactor. CVD is widely used in the semiconductor industry to deposit various materials such as polycrystalline, amorphous, and epitaxial silicon, carbon fiber, filaments, carbon nanotubes, Si02, silicon-germanium, tungsten, silicon nitride, silicon oxynitride, titanium nitride, and various high-k dielectrics. 

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