Evidence that N2O is a Stronger Oxidizing Agent than O2 for the Post-Deposition Annealing of Ta2O5 on Si Capacitors

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Abstract
Cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy (XTEM), secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) and capacitance measurements were used to study the effect of post-deposition annealing on Ta2O5/Si structures. A significantly thicker SiO x interfacial layer was formed at the Ta2O5/Si interface, if N2O was used instead of O2 for post-deposition annealing. This indicates that N2O is a stronger oxidizing agent than O2. It is known that the leakage current of Ta2O5 capacitors is greatly reduced if N2O is used instead of O2 for post-deposition annealing. This may also be partially explained by postulating that N2O annealing is more effective in the suppression of oxygen vacancies. Furthermore, the suppression of Si diffusion from the Si substrate into Ta2O5 due to the thicker SiO x interfacial layer can be another factor. The basic reason for the superiority of N2O is that the energy required to produce free O atoms is lower than that for O2. From this point of view, we can also predict that the use of NO will be worse than that of O2 because the energy required to produce free O atoms is higher than that of O2.