Gate-first Germanium nMOSFET with CVD HfO/sub 2/ gate dielectric and silicon surface passivation

A gate-first self-aligned Ge n-channel MOSFET (nMOSFET) with chemical vapor deposited (CVD) high-/spl kappa/ gate dielectric HfO/sub 2/ was demonstrated. By tuning the thickness of the ultrathin silicon-passivation layer on top of the germanium, it is found that increasing the silicon thickness helps to reduce the hysteresis, fixed charge in the gate dielectric, and interface trap density at the oxide/semiconductor interface. About 61% improvement in peak electron mobility of the Ge nMOSFET with a thick silicon-passivation layer over the CVD HfO/sub 2//Si system was achieved.     

A study of relaxation current in high-/spl kappa/ dielectric stacks

Dielectric relaxation currents in SiO/sub 2//Al/sub 2/O/sub 3/ and SiO/sub 2//HfO/sub 2/ high-/spl kappa/ dielectric stacks are studied in this paper. We studied the thickness dependence, gate voltage polarity dependence and temperature dependence of the relaxation current in high-/spl kappa/ dielectric stacks. It is found that high-/spl kappa/ dielectric stacks show different characteristics than what is expected based on the dielectric material polarization model. By the drain current variation measurement in n-channel MOSFET, we confirm that electron trapping and detrapping in the high-/spl kappa/ dielectric stacks is the cause of the dielectric relaxation current. From substrate injection experiments, it is also concluded that the relaxation current is mainly due to the traps located near the SiO/sub 2//high-/spl kappa/ interface. As the electron trapping induces a serious threshold voltage shift problem, a low trap density at the SiO/sub 2//high-/spl kappa/ interface is a key requirement for high-/spl kappa/ dielectric stack application and reliability in MOS devices.     

Impacts of gate electrode materials on threshold voltage (V/sub th/) instability in nMOS HfO/sub 2/ gate stacks under DC and AC stressing

Ultrathin nMOSFET hafnium oxide (HfO/sub 2/) gate stacks with TiN metal gate and poly-Si gate electrodes are compared to study the impact of the gate electrode on long term threshold instability reliability for both dc and ac stress conditions. The poly-Si/high-/spl kappa/ interface exhibits more traps due to interfacial reaction than the TiN/high-/spl kappa/ interface, resulting in significantly worse dc V/sub th/ instability. However, the V/sub th/ instability difference between these two stacks decreases and eventually diminishes as ac stress frequency increases, which suggests the top interface plays a minor role in charge trapping at high operating frequency. In addition, ac stress induced interface states (Nit) can be effectively recovered, resulting in negligible G/sub m/ degradation.     

Characterization of accumulation layer capacitance for extracting data on high-/spl kappa/ gate dielectrics

A new parameter extraction technique has been outlined for high-/spl kappa/ gate dielectrics that directly yields values of the dielectric capacitance C/sub di/, the accumulation layer surface potential quotient, /spl beta//sub acc/, the flat-band voltage, the surface potential /spl phi//sub s/, the dielectric voltage, the channel doping density and the interface charge density at flat-band. The parallel capacitance, C/sub p/(=C/sub sc/+C/sub it/), was found to be an exponential function of /spl phi//sub s/ in the strong accumulation regime, for seven different high-/spl kappa/ gate dielectrics. The slope of the experimental lnC/sub p/(/spl phi//sub s/) plot, i.e., |/spl beta//sub acc/|, was found to depend strongly on the physical properties of the high-/spl kappa/ dielectric, i.e., was inversely proportional to [(/spl phi//sub b/m/sup *//m)/sup 1/2/K/C/sub di/], where /spl phi//sub b/ is the band offset, and m/sup */ is the effective tunneling mass. Extraction of /spl beta//sub acc/ represented an experimental carrier confinement index for the accumulation layer and an experimental gate-dielectric direct-tunneling current index. /spl beta//sub acc/ may also be an effective tool for monitoring the effects of post-deposition annealing/processing.     

Improved device performance and reliability in high /spl kappa/ HfTaTiO gate dielectric with TaN gate electrode

The device performance and reliability of higher-/spl kappa/ HfTaTiO gate dielectrics have been investigated in this letter. HfTaTiO dielectrics have been reported to have a high-/spl kappa/ value of 56 and acceptable barrier height relative to Si (1.0 eV). Through process optimization, an ultrathin equivalent oxide thickness (EOT) (/spl sim/9 /spl Aring/) has been achieved. HfTaTiO nMOSFET characteristics have been studied as well. The peak mobility of HfTaTiO is 50% higher than that of HfO/sub 2/ and its high field mobility is comparable to that of HfSiON with an intentionally grown SiO/sub 2/ interface, indicative of superior quality of the interface and bulk dielectric. In addition, HfTaTiO dielectric has a reduced stress-induced leakage current (SILC) and improved breakdown voltage compared to HfO/sub 2/ dielectric.     

Si interlayer passivation on germanium MOS capacitors with high-/spl kappa/ dielectric and metal gate

We have demonstrated the advantages of silicon interlayer passivation on germanium MOS devices, with CVD HfO/sub 2/ as the high-/spl kappa/ dielectric and PVD TaN as the gate electrode. A silicon interlayer between a germanium substrate and a high-/spl kappa/ dielectric, deposited using SiH/sub 4/ gas at 580/spl deg/C, significantly improved the electrical characteristics of germanium devices in terms of low D/sub it/ (7/spl times/10/sup 10//cm/sup 2/-eV), less C- V hysteresis and frequency dispersion. Low leakage current density of 5/spl times/10/sup -7/ A/cm/sup 2/ at 1 V bias with EOT of 12.4 /spl Aring/ was achieved. Post-metallization annealing caused continuing V/sub fb/ positive shift and J/sub g/ increase with increased annealing temperature, which was possibly attributed to Ge diffusion into the dielectric during annealing.     

Intrinsic mobility evaluation of high-/spl kappa/ gate dielectric transistors using pulsed I/sub d/-V/sub g/

A novel intrinsic mobility extraction methodology for high-/spl kappa/ gate stacks that only requires a capacitance-voltage and pulsed I/sub d/-V/sub g/ measurement is demonstrated on SiO/sub 2/ and high-/spl kappa/ gate dielectric transistors and is benchmarked to other reported mobility extraction techniques. Fast transient charging effects in high-/spl kappa/ gate stacks are shown to cause the mobility extracted using conventional dc-based techniques to be lower than the intrinsic mobility.     

Modeling of charge trapping induced threshold-voltage instability in high-/spl kappa/ gate dielectric FETs

The authors have developed a distributed tunneling model to investigate the threshold-voltage instability induced by charge trapping in field-effect transistors (FETs) using high-/spl kappa/ gate dielectric materials. The charge trapping dynamics in the high-/spl kappa/ layer are modeled based on a rate equation, which is self-consistently incorporated into device-level simulations. The model is used to simulate pulsed operation of HfO/sub 2/ based n-type FETs; good agreement is obtained with pulsed measurements including the dependence of the threshold-voltage shift on pulse heights and durations. The trap-energy-level shift due to the polaron effect is found to be critical to model the pulse-height dependence of the threshold-voltage shift.     

Charge trapping and detrapping characteristics in hafnium silicate gate stack under static and dynamic stress

The V/sub th/ instability of nMOSFET with HfSiON gate dielectric under various stress conditions has been evaluated. It is shown that after constant voltage stress, the threshold voltage (V/sub th/) relaxes to its initial prestress value. The relaxation rate is strongly affected by the stress duration and magnitude rather than injected charge flux or magnitude of the V/sub th/ shift. It is proposed that spatial distribution of trapped charges, which is strongly affected by the stress conditions, determines the relaxation rate. The implications of the electron trapping/detrapping processes on electrical evaluation of the high-/spl kappa/ gate dielectrics are discussed.     

Dopant-free FUSI Pt/sub x/Si metal gate for high work function and reduced Fermi-level pinning

High work function (4.9 eV) on high-/spl kappa/ gate dielectric, which is suitable for bulk p-MOSFET, has been achieved using fully silicided (FUSI) Pt/sub x/Si gate without boron predoping of polysilicon. High concentration of Pt in FUSI Pt/sub x/Si using Ti capping layer on Pt in the FUSI process is a key to achieving high work function and reduced Fermi-level pinning on high-/spl kappa/ dielectric. By combining with substituted Al (SA) gate for nMOSFET, a wide range of work function difference (0.65 eV) between n and pMOSFETs is demonstrated, without any adverse effects of polysilicon predoping.     

Physically based quantum-mechanical compact model of MOS devices substrate-injected tunneling current through ultrathin (EOT /spl sim/ 1 nm) SiO/sub 2/ and high-/spl kappa/ gate stacks

Building on a previously presented compact gate capacitance (C/sub g/-V/sub g/) model, a computationally efficient and accurate physically based compact model of gate substrate-injected tunneling current (I/sub g/-V/sub g/) is provided for both ultrathin SiO/sub 2/ and high-dielectric constant (high-/spl kappa/) gate stacks of equivalent oxide thickness (EOT) down to /spl sim/ 1 nm. Direct and Fowler-Nordheim tunneling from multiple discrete subbands in the strong inversion layer are addressed. Subband energies in the presence of wave function penetration into the gate dielectric, charge distributions among the subbands subject to Fermi-Dirac statistics, and the barrier potential are provided from the compact C/sub g/-V/sub g/ model. A modified version of the conventional Wentzel-Kramer-Brillouin approximation allows for the effects of the abrupt material interfaces and nonparabolicities in complex band structures of the individual dielectrics on the tunneling current. This compact model produces simulation results comparable to those obtained via computationally intense self-consistent Poisson-Schro/spl uml/dinger simulators with the same MOS devices structures and material parameters for 1-nm EOTs of SiO/sub 2/ and high-/spl kappa//SiO/sub 2/ gate stacks on (100) Si, respectively. Comparisons to experimental data for MOS devices with metal and polysilicon gates, ultrathin dielectrics of SiO/sub 2/, Si/sub 3/N/sub 4/, and high-/spl kappa/ (e.g., HfO/sub 2/) gate stacks on (100) Si with EOTs down to /spl sim/ 1-nm show excellent agreement.     

The effect of IrO/sub 2/--IrO/sub 2/--Hf--LaAlO/sub 3/ gate dielectric on the bias-temperature instability of 3-D GOI CMOSFETs

We have studied the bias-temperature instability of three-dimensional self-aligned metal-gate/high-/spl kappa//Germanium-on-insulator (GOI) CMOSFETs, which were integrated on underlying 0.18 /spl mu/m CMOSFETs. The devices used IrO/sub 2/--IrO/sub 2/-Hf dual gates and a high-/spl kappa/ LaAlO/sub 3/ gate dielectric, and gave an equivalent-oxide thickness (EOT) of 1.4 nm. The metal-gate/high-/spl kappa//GOI p-and n-MOSFETs displayed threshold voltage (V/sub t/) shifts of 30 and 21 mV after 10 MV/cm, 85/spl deg/C stress for 1 h, comparable with values for the control two-dimensional (2-D) metal-gate/high-/spl kappa/-Si CMOSFETs. An extrapolated maximum voltage of -1.2 and 1.4 V for a ten-year lifetime was obtained from the bias-temperature stress measurements on the GOI CMOSFETs.     

Fermi-level pinning induced thermal instability in the effective work function of TaN in TaN/SiO/sub 2/ gate stack

In this letter, we demonstrate for the first time that the Fermi-level pinning caused by the formation of Ta(N)-Si bonds at the TaN/SiO/sub 2/ interface is responsible for the thermal instability of the effective work function of TaN in TaN/SiO/sub 2/ devices after high temperature rapid thermal annealing (RTA). Because of weak charge transfer between Hf and Ta(N) and hence negligible pinning effect at the TaN/HfO/sub 2/ interface, the effective work function of TaN is significantly more thermally stable on HfO/sub 2/ than on SiO/sub 2/ dielectric during RTA. This finding provides a guideline for the work function tuning and the integration of metal gate with high-/spl kappa/ dielectric for advanced CMOS devices.     

High-performance poly-silicon TFTs using HfO/sub 2/ gate dielectric

High-performance low-temperature poly-Si thin-film transistors (TFTs) using high-/spl kappa/ (HfO/sub 2/) gate dielectric is demonstrated for the first time. Because of the high gate capacitance density and thin equivalent-oxide thickness contributed by the high-/spl kappa/ gate dielectric, excellent device performance can be achieved including high driving current, low subthreshold swing, low threshold voltage, and high ON/OFF current ratio. It should be noted that the ON-state current of high-/spl kappa/ gate-dielectric TFTs is almost five times higher than that of SiO/sub 2/ gate-dielectric TFTs. Moreover, superior threshold-voltage (V/sub th/) rolloff property is also demonstrated. All of these results suggest that high-/spl kappa/ gate dielectric is a good choice for high-performance TFTs.     

Hot-carrier stress effects on gate-induced-drain leakage current in n-channel MOSFETs studied by hydrogen/deuterium isotope effect

The degradation of gate-induced-drain leakage (GIDL) current under hot-carrier stress (HCS) has been studied in n-channel MOSFETs that were annealed in hydrogen (H) or deuterium (D). It is found that the degradation of GIDL current (I/sub GIDL/) can be effectively suppressed by deuterium passivation of interface traps. By using the H/D isotope effect, the impacts of oxide charge trapping (/spl Delta/N/sub ox/) and interface trap generation (/spl Delta/N/sub it/) on I/sub GIDL/ are successfully separated. The results indicate that, depending on stress and measurement conditions, I/sub GIDL/ may increase or decrease under HCS. /spl Delta/N/sub ox/ alters I/sub GIDL/ at high electric fields by varying the band-to-band tunneling current. /spl Delta/N/sub it/ alters I/sub GIDL/ at a low electric field by introducing a trap-assisted leakage component. Furthermore, evidence of hole trapping at the peak substrate current stress is indisputably presented for the first time and its impact on I/sub GIDL/ is discussed.     

Integrated high-/spl kappa/ (/spl kappa/ /spl sim/19) MIM capacitor with Cu/low-/spl kappa/ interconnects for RF application

We demonstrate a high-performance metal-high /spl kappa/ insulator-metal (MIM) capacitor integrated with a Cu/low-/spl kappa/ backend interconnection. The high-/spl kappa/ used was laminated HfO/sub 2/-Al/sub 2/O/sub 3/ with effective /spl kappa/ /spl sim/19 and the low-/spl kappa/ dielectric used was Black Diamond with /spl kappa/ /spl sim/2.9. The MIM capacitor (/spl sim/13.4 fF//spl mu/m/sup 2/) achieved a Q-factor /spl sim/53 at 2.5 GHz and 11.7 pF. The resonant frequency f/sub r/ was 21% higher in comparison to an equivalently integrated Si/sub 3/N/sub 4/-MIM capacitor (/spl sim/0.93 fF//spl mu/m/sup 2/) having similar capacitance 11.2 pF. The impacts of high-/spl kappa/ insulator and low-/spl kappa/ interconnect dielectric on the mechanism for resonant frequency improvement are distinguished using equivalent circuit analysis. This letter suggests that integrated high-/spl kappa/ MIM could be a promising alternative capacitor structure for future high-performance RF applications.     

A fast measurement technique of MOSFETI/sub d/-V/sub g/ characteristics

In this letter, we developed an improved ultrafast measurement method for threshold voltage V/sub th/ measurement of MOSFETs. We demonstrate I/sub d/--V/sub g/ curve measurement within 1 /spl mu/s to extract the threshold voltage of MOSFET. Errors arising from MOSFET parasitics and measurement setup are analyzed quantitatatively. The ultrafast V/sub th/ measurement is highly needed in the investigation of gate dielectric charge trapping effect when traps with short detrapping time constants are present. Application in charge trapping measurement on HfO/sub 2/ gate dielectric is demonstrated.     

A novel program-erasable high-/spl kappa/ AlN-Si MIS capacitor

We demonstrate a programmable-erasable MIS capacitor with a single layer high-/spl kappa/ AlN dielectric on Si having a high capacitance density of /spl sim/5 fF//spl mu/m/sup 2/. It has low program and erase voltages of +4 and -4 V, respectively. Such an erase function is not available in other single layer Al/sub 2/O/sub 3/, AlON, or other known high-/spl kappa/ dielectric capacitors, where the threshold voltage (V/sub th/) shifts continuously with voltage. This device exhibits good data retention with a V/sub th/ change of only 0.06 V after 10 000 s.     

Elimination of poly-Si gate depletion for sub-65-nm CMOS technologies by excimer laser annealing

Pulsed excimer laser annealing (ELA) is used to reduce the poly-Si gate depletion effect (to <0.1 nm). Low resistivity (0.58 m/spl Omega//spl middot/cm) and high active boron concentration (4/spl times/10/sup 20/ cm/sup -3/) at the gate-oxide interface are achieved while preserving the gate oxide quality and avoiding boron penetration, to meet International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors requirements for sub-65-nm CMOS technology nodes. ELA is compatible with high-/spl kappa/ dielectric (HfO/sub 2/) and results in significantly lower gate leakage current density as compared with rapid thermal annealing (RTA).     

High work-function metal gate and high-/spl kappa/ dielectrics for charge trap flash memory device applications

We report the impact of high work-function (/spl Phi//sub M/) metal gate and high-/spl kappa/ dielectrics on memory properties of NAND-type charge trap Flash (CTF) memory devices. In this paper, theoretical and experimental studies show that high /spl Phi//sub M/ gate and high permittivity (high-/spl kappa/) dielectrics play a key role in eliminating electron back tunneling though the blocking dielectric during the erase operation. Techniques to improve erase efficiency of CTF memory devices with a fixed metal gate by employing various chemicals and structures are introduced and those mechanisms are discussed. Though process optimization of high /spl Phi//sub M/ gate and high-/spl kappa/ materials, enhanced CTF device characteristics such as high speed, large memory window, and good reliability characteristics of the CTF devices are obtained.