Density Functional Theory Study of Silicon Chlorides for Atomic Layer Deposition of Silicon Nitride Thin Films

Recently, the scaling of conventional planar NAND flash devices is facing its limits by decreasing numbers of electron stored in the floating gate and increasing difficulties in patterning. Three-dimensional vertical NAND devices have been proposed to overcome these issues. Atomic layer deposition (ALD) is the most promising method to deposit charge trap layer of vertical NAND devices, SiN, with excellent quality due to not only its self-limiting growth characteristics but also low process temperature. ALD of silicon nitride were studied using NH3 and silicon chloride precursors, such as SiCl4[1], SiH2Cl2[2], Si2Cl6[3], and Si3Cl8. However, the reaction mechanism of ALD silicon nitride process was rarely reported. In the present study, we used density functional theory (DFT) method to calculate the reaction of silicon chloride precursors with a silicon nitride surface. DFT is a quantum mechanical modeling method to investigate the electronic structure of many-body systems, in particular atoms, molecules, and the condensed phases. The bond dissociation energy of each precursor was calculated and compared with each other. The different reactivities of silicon chlorides precursors were discussed using the calculated results.