Tailoring the High-K Gate Dielectric/Sillicon Interface for CMOS Applications

Published

October 12, 2021

Author(s)

Y S. Lin, R Puthenkovilakam, J P. Chang, C P. Bouldin, Igor Levin, Nhan Van Nguyen, Y Sun, P Pianetta, T Conard, W Vandervorst, V Venturo, S Selbrede

Abstract

The interfacial properties, thermal stabilities, and the electrical characteristics of ZrO₂/ Si and ZrO₂/SiO₂/Si were investigated and the interfacial layer of as-deposited ZrO₂ on silicon is likely to be ZrSi_xO_y. The ZrO₂/ZrSi_xO_y/Si is stoichiometic, uniform, amorphous, and has an equivalent oxide thickness of difference} 1.3 nm and a dielectric constant of 20.5 with leakage current of 3.2 x 10^-3 A/cm² at 1.5V. the as-deposited ZrO₂/ZrSi_xO_y/Si film stack is thermally stable up to 880 C and its thermally stability improved to 925 C upon oxygen or ammonia annealing. After oxygen annealing, the interfacial layer showed a more SiO₂ like character and the interfacial layer thickness increased by 1 nm. In addition, the overall dielectric constant was reduced to 15.7. For NH₃ annealing, ZrO₂ underwent nitridation and the interfacial layer thickness increased by 0.6 nm with the overall dielectric constant reduced to 12.9.

Citation

Applied Physics

Pub Type

Journals

Keywords

characterization, high-K gate diectrics, interface, tunable, zirconium oxide

Citation

Lin, Y. , Puthenkovilakam, R. , Chang, J. , Bouldin, C. , Levin, I. , Nguyen, N. , Sun, Y. , Pianetta, P. , Conard, T. , Vandervorst, W. , Venturo, V. and Selbrede, S. (2021), Tailoring the High-K Gate Dielectric/Sillicon Interface for CMOS Applications, Applied Physics (Accessed October 22, 2025)