The dielectric constant of the film was calculated using the maximum accumulation capacitance obtained by C-V curves. The result showed that the dielectric

constant was fairly uniform over the sample area with a variation of about 2% and that the average dielectric constants of the films were 4.26 and 4.01 for N2/O2 flow ratios of 0.01 and 1, respectively. Since the dielectric constants of SiO2 and Si3N4 are 3.9 and 7.5, respectively, nitrogen atoms are considered to be incorporated in the SiO2 structure. XPS spectra in the Si 2p region for this website the SiO x N y layer formed at 400°C for 9 min with a N2/O2 gas flow ratio of 0.1 are shown

in Figure 3. The Si 2p peak observed at 99.7 eV is from the Si substrate and the one at 103.5 eV from Si-O-Si bonding. On the as-grown sample, as shown in Figure 3a, after five times of surface layer sputtering by 10-keV Ar ions (duration of one sputtering is 10 s), Si-O-Si click here bonding peak is strong, but a small peak from the Si substrate is also seen. By the sixth and seventh sputtering, the Si-O-Si peak decreases and the bulk Si peak increases. It is noteworthy that Si-N bonding at 102.4 eV is also detected. Since the Si-N peak becomes clear before the Si-O-Si peak vanishes, Si-N bonding is supposed to be located at the SiO2/Si interface region. In the annealed sample,

as shown in Figure 3b, the decrease of the Si-O-Si peak after the sixth sputtering is not significant as compared to that in the as-grown CB-5083 in vivo sample and the Si-O-Si peak still remains after the seventh sputtering. The Si-N peak becomes well observable after the seventh sputtering in the annealed sample instead of the sixth sputtering for the as-grown case. However, the tendency of decreasing Si-O-Si peak and increasing Farnesyltransferase bulk Si peak with increasing sputtering time is the same for both as-grown and annealed samples. These results can be understood by considering the increase in SiO2 thickness by the annealing and the presence of Si-N bonding at the SiO2/Si interface region. The thickness increase in the annealed SiO2 sample is considered to be due to the density relaxation of SiO2 by the thermal annealing [20, 21]. Figure 3 XPS spectra in Si 2 p region for SiO x N y layer formed by 1% O 2 /He AP plasma oxidation-nitridation. The process is at 400°C for 9 min with a N2/O2 gas flow ratio of 0.1. (a) As-grown sample. (b) Annealed sample. Figure 4 shows depth profiles of Si, O, and N atom concentrations in SiO x N y films measured by XPS as a function of sputtering time, which reveals that incorporated N atoms (approximately 4%) locate at the film/substrate interface for all the samples. These results are similar to those by the high-temperature process, such as the direct thermal oxynitridation of Si in N2O ambient at 1,000°C [5].