Phonon-energy-coupling enhancement:: Strengthening the chemical bonds of the SiO2/Si system

We report a new effect for the SiO2/Si system, phonon-energy-coupling enhancement. The vibrational modes of the Si-Si and Si-O bonds exhibit enhanced energy coupling when the rapid thermal processing (RTP) is directly applied to the SiO2/Si system. With a combination of the RTP and deuterium (D) anneal, the strongest coupling among the Si-D, Si-Si, and Si-O bonds was observed. It is shown that not only Si-D bonds but also Si-O bonds have been strengthened dramatically when this effect is applied directly to the oxide, leading to an enhanced robustness of the oxide structure. The gate leakage current has been reduced by five orders of magnitude for thin oxides (2.2 nm) and two orders of magnitude for thick oxides (>3 nm). The breakdown voltage has been improved by similar to 30% (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.