Influence of annealing temperature on passivation performance of thermal atomic layer deposition Al₂O₃ films

Chemical and field-effect passivation of atomic layer deposition (ALD) Al₂O₃ films are investigated, mainly by corona charging measurement. The interface structure and material properties are characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), respectively. Passivation performance is improved remarkably by annealing at temperatures of 450 ℃ and 500 ℃, while the improvement is quite weak at 600 ℃, which can be attributed to the poor quality of chemical passivation. An increase of fixed negative charge density in the films during annealing can be explained by the Al₂O₃/Si interface structural change. The Al–OH groups play an important role in chemical passivation, and the Al–OH concentration in an as-deposited film subsequently determines the passivation quality of that film when it is annealed, to a certain degree.