NITROGEN INCORPORATION IN GATE DIELECTRICS - A CORRELATION BETWEEN AUGER-ELECTRON SPECTROSCOPY AND SURFACE-CHARGE ANALYSIS TECHNIQUES

Thermal oxides are grown under various processing conditions which introduce nitrogen into the gate dielectric. It is shown that the positive charge introduced during these processes, measured by surface charge analysis (SCA), correlates with the amount of nitrogen incorporated in the oxides, measured by Auger electron spectroscopy (AES). It is suggested that the SCA technique offers a simple and cost-effective method of characterizing oxides for their nitrogen content.