Anomalous junction leakage current induced by STI dislocations and its impact on dynamic random access memory devices

As the density of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) increases up to giga-bit regime, one of the important problems is the control of the process-induced defects and damage. Although the shallow trench isolation (STI) is widely used for deep submicron devices, it has a great possibility of generating STI dislocations due to its inherently large mechanical stress and damage. When STI dislocations are located within the depletion region of pn junction, anomalous junction leakage current could flow. This junction leakage current degrades the memory cell data retention time and the standby current of DRAM. We resolved the problems from STI dislocations as follows; the crystal defects and the mechanical stress were reduced by optimizing the implantation condition and the densification temperature of trench filled high-density plasma (HDP) oxide, respectively. In addition, the residual mechanical stress before source/drain implantation was relieved through rapid thermal nitridation (RTN). By using these methods, STI dislocations were successfully clamped outside the depletion region of pn junction.