A Novel D<sub>2</sub> Plasma Treatment for Defect Passivation: From Modeling to Process Optimization
We present a novel deuterium (D2) plasma treatment process for interface passivation that leads to reliability improvement under a low thermal budget. Specifically, physics-based simulations revealed a marked enhancement of key reliability phenomena such as leakage current, Negative Bias Temperature Instability (NBTI) and Voltage-Dependent Dielectric Breakdown (VDDB), also confirmed by experiments. Furthermore, the plasma treatment process optimization is accelerated through a physical model based on the Ginestra ™ simulation platform, which connects the process conditions to the defect passivation and the best device reliability.
Authors
- Luca Larcher (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9139-349X)
- Andrew Cockburn (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8860-8798)
- Sara Vecchi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0260-3003)
- Deven Raj
- L. Daté
- Gaurav Thareja
- Andrea Palmieri
- Davide Cornigli (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1683-5200)
- V. Bhosle
- Andrea Padovani (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1145-5257)
- Fabrizio Buscemi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2038-932X)
- F. Nardi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-0537-5442)
Institutions
- University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (IT)
- Applied Materials (United States) (US)
- Ferrari (Italy) (IT)
Publication Details
- Published
- 2025-03-30
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1109/irps48204.2025.10983832
- Primary Topic
- Metal and Thin Film Mechanics
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00