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High-Temperature H2- and N2-Containing Surface Conditioning for SiO2/4H-SiC Interface Optimization

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Abstract:

In this paper, we study high-temperature H2, N2, and H2/N2 surface conditioning processes prior to the SiO2 deposition as a promising approach for SiO2/4H-SiC interface preparation in metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFET). A thorough electrical analysis is presented, consisting of temperature-dependent transfer characteristics as well as reliability studies regarding bias temperature instabilities (BTI) and dielectric breakdown behavior. Especially N2-containing surface pretreatments were found to greatly suppress electron traps, whereas hole trapping is enhanced. Finally, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) was utilized to elucidate the elemental surface composition after the different annealing procedures. The obtained results are in good agreement with the electrical characterization and complement already published results regarding the formation of surface reconstructions on 4H-SiC through H2 and H2/N2 annealings.

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Periodical:

Materials Science Forum (Volume 1192)

Pages:

67-74

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4028/p-1Pi4j8

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Cite this paper

Online since:

May 2026

Authors:

Johannes Ziegler*, Dick Scholten, Holger Bartolf, Jörg Schulze

Keywords:

Channel Mobility, MOSFET, NBTI, PBTI, SiO2/4H-SiC, Surface Conditioning, Surface Reconstruction, TDDB, Threshold Voltage (Vth), Transfer Characteristics, TZDB, XPS

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Creative Commons CC BY 4.0

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* - Corresponding Author

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