3-D photonic-crystal heterostructures: fabrication and in-line resonator

A heterostructured photonic-crystal functional chip consisting of a resonator and waveguides is fabricated by a simple "autocloning" process. First, we prepare a substrate with different corrugation patterns by electron beam lithography and dry etching, and Ta/sub 2/O/sub 5/-SiO/sub 2/ multilayers are successively formed upon the substrate. An in-line resonator is fabricated and characterized by fiber-in-fiber-out measurement, and a resonance peak with Q=270 is demonstrated. The future outlook for the technology is also discussed.     

Electrical properties of Ta/sub 2/O/sub 5/ gate dielectric on strained-Si

High dielectric constant (high-k) thin Ta/sub 2/O/sub 5/ films have been deposited on tensilely strained silicon (strained-Si) layers using a microwave plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition technique at a low temperature. The deposited Ta/sub 2/O/sub 5/ films show good electrical properties as gate dielectrics and are suitable for microelectronic applications. The feasibility of integration of strained-Si and high-k dielectrics has been demonstrated.     

A novel high-/spl kappa/ SONOS memory using TaN/Al/sub 2/O/sub 3//Ta/sub 2/O/sub 5//HfO/sub 2//Si structure for fast speed and long retention operation

A novel high-/spl kappa/ silicon-oxide-nitride-oxide-silicon (SONOS)-type memory using TaN/Al/sub 2/O/sub 3//Ta/sub 2/O/sub 5//HfO/sub 2//Si (MATHS) structure is reported for the first time. Such MATHS devices can keep the advantages of our previously reported TaN/HfO/sub 2//Ta/sub 2/O/sub 5//HfO/sub 2//Si device structure to obtain a better tradeoff between long retention and fast programming as compared to traditional SONOS devices. While at the same time by replacing hafnium oxide (HfO/sub 2/) with aluminum oxide (Al/sub 2/O/sub 3/) for the top blocking layer, better blocking efficiency can be achieved due to Al/sub 2/O/sub 3/'s much larger barrier height, resulting in greatly improved memory window and faster programming. The fabricated devices exhibit a fast program and erase speed, excellent ten-year retention and superior endurance up to 10/sup 5/ stress cycles at a tunnel oxide of only 9.5 /spl Aring/ equivalent oxide thickness.     

高掺铒硅基氧化钽脊形光波导

首次提出了采用Er-Ta共溅、高温退火的方法,在硅基二氧化硅表面制备高掺铒氧化钽（Er:Ta2O5）薄膜。利用棱镜耦合仪分析了铒掺杂浓度对Er:Ta2O5薄膜的折射率的影响,结果表明:Er:Ta2O5薄膜的折射率随着Er掺杂浓度的增加而略微降低,且所制备的薄膜没有明显的各向异性。在此基础上,成功制备出Er掺杂浓度分别为0、2.5、5、7.5 mol%的硅基Er:Ta2O5脊形波导,波导在1 550 nm波段可实现单模传输,通过截断法得到波导在1 600 nm波长处的传输损耗分别为0.6、1.1、2.5、5.0 dB/cm。在所制备的Er:Ta2O5薄膜中,尽管没有发现Er2O3结晶析出,但薄膜中的Er3+会影响Ta2O5晶体的结晶程度,进而增加波导的传输损耗。最终文中制备的掺杂浓度为2.5 mol%的硅基Er:Ta2O5脊形波导通过980 nm激光泵浦,在1 531 nm信号波长下达到了3.1 dB/cm的净增益。     

Improvement of electrical and reliability properties of tantalum pentoxide by high-density plasma (HDP) annealing in N/sub 2/O

This study aims to improve the electrical characteristics and reliability of low-pressure chemical vapor deposited (LPCVD) tantalum pentoxide (Ta/sub 2/O/sub 5/) films by a new post-deposition annealing technique using high-density plasma (HDP). Experimental results indicate that excited oxygen atoms generated by N/sub 2/O decomposition from HDP annealing can effectively reduce the carbon and hydrogen impurity concentrations and repair the oxygen vacancies in the as-deposited CVD Ta/sub 2/O/sub 5/ film, thereby resulting in a remarkable reduction of the film's leakage current. Two other post-deposition annealing conditions are compared: HDP O/sub 2/ annealing and conventional plasma O/sub 2/ annealing. The comparison reveals that HDP N/sub 2/O annealing has the lowest leakage current and superior time-dependent dielectric breakdown (TDDB) reliability.     

Flexible AM OLED panel driven by bottom-contact OTFTs

Active matrix organic-light-emitting-diode (AM OLED) panels, driven by organic thin-film transistors (OTFT), have been successfully fabricated on a flexible plastic substrate. The pixel circuit consists of two bottom-contact pentacene OTFTs working as switching and driving transistors. The panel has 16 /spl times/ 16 pixels, each of which have an OLED using a phosphorescent material with an emission efficiency of 30 cd/A. A tantalum oxide (Ta/sub 2/O/sub 5/) film with a dielectric constant of 24, prepared by the anodization of Tantalum (Ta), was used as the gate insulator of the OTFTs. The passivation layer on the OTFTs was formed by a layer of silicon dioxide (SiO/sub 2/) and two layers of polyvinyl alcohol. Using OTFTs with a Ta/sub 2/O/sub 5/ gate insulator, the authors have realized a flexible active matrix OLED panel driven with a low voltage of -12 V.     

Embedded thin film capacitors-theoretical limits

The large physical size of capacitors and/or excessive values of associated lead inductance are two major limitations in the development of novel packaging modules, with high packaging density, high performance and reliability along with low system cost. Embedded capacitor technology in thin film form offers a promising solution to these limitations. A design space with capacitance density and breakdown voltage as performance properties, with material dielectric constant and film thickness as parameters has been explored, focusing on tantalum pentoxide (Ta/sub 2/O/sub 5/) as the dielectric material. An inherent tradeoff is established between breakdown voltage and capacitance density for thin film capacitors. The validity of the proposed design space is illustrated with thin films of Ta/sub 2/O/sub 5/, showing deviation from the "best can achieve" breakdown voltage for films thinner than 0.4 /spl mu/m and films thicker than 1 /spl mu/m.     

A Two-Stage Monolithic IF Amplifier Utilizing a Ta/sub 2/O/sub 5/ Capacitor

A two-stage monolithic IF amplifier incorporating a sputtered Ta/sub 2/O/sub 5/ capacitor has been fabricated. The monolithic capacitor is based on a composite layer structure consisting of Au, Ta, Ta/sub 2/O/sub 5/, Ta, and Au. This layered structure is sequentially deposited in a single sputtering run, which eliminates particulate contamination. As a result, a thin pinhole-free dielectric layer can be deposited over large areas, and 140-pF capacitors have been fabricated with excellent yields. The large unit area capacitance of 1500 pF/mm/sup 2/ available with the present process has the potential for reducing the size of matching and bias circuits in microwave monolithic circuits and hybrid thin-film circuits. The monolithic amplifiers exhibit a gain of 17.5 +- 1.0 dB from 1.2 to 2.6 GHz and a minimum noise figure of ~2.7 dB, with an associated gain of 17.5 dB at 1.7 GHz.     

Electrical and reliability characteristics of an ultrathin TaO/sub x/N/sub y/ gate dielectric prepared by ND/sub 3/ annealing of Ta/sub 2/O/sub 5/

This letter describes a unique process for the preparation of high quality tantalum oxynitride (TaO/sub x/N/sub y/) via the ND/sub 3/ annealing of Ta/sub 2/O/sub 5/, for use in gate dielectric applications. Compared with tantalum oxide (Ta/sub 2/O/sub 5/), a significant improvement in the dielectric constant was obtained by the ammonia treatment followed by light reoxidation in a wet ambient. We were able to confirm nitrogen incorporation in the tantalum oxynitride (TaO/sub x/N/sub y/) by Auger electron spectroscopy. Compared with NH/sub 3/ nitridation, tantalum oxynitride prepared by nitridation in ND/sub 3/ shows less charge trapping and larger charge-to-breakdown characteristics.     

Spectroscopic and stimulated emission characteristics of Nd/sup 3+/ in transparent Y/sub 2/O/sub 3/ ceramics

Nd:Y/sub 2/O/sub 3/ ceramic materials have been synthesized using the vacuum sintering technique with the raw materials prepared by the nanocrystalline methods. The TEM measurements reveal the excellent optical quality of the ceramic with low pore volume and narrow grain boundary. The radiative spectral properties of Nd:Y/sub 2/O/sub 3/ ceramic have been evaluated by fitting the Judd-Ofelt model with the absorption and emission data. Individual Stark levels for /sup 2s+1/L/sub J/ manifolds are obtained from the absorption and fluorescence spectra and are analyzed to identify the stimulated emission channels possible in the Nd:Y/sub 2/O/sub 3/ ceramic. Laser performance studies reveal two stimulated emission channels at 1074.6- and 1078.6-nm wavelengths with stimulated emission cross sections of 7.63/spl times/10/sup -20/ and 6.35/spl times/10/sup -20/ cm/sup 2/. With 1.5 at % Nd:Y/sub 2/O/sub 3/ ceramic acting as a laser medium, we obtained a slope efficiency of 32% with 160-mW output power and pump threshold of 200 mW at 1078.6 nm.     

Low-loss, high- Delta , single-mode channel waveguides for high-density integrated optical devices

Low-loss, high- Delta , single-mode channel waveguides having cores of SiO/sub 2/-Ta/sub 2/O/sub 5/ mixture film are successfully fabricated using sputtering and reactive ion-beam etching. Propagation loss is less than 0.6 dB/cm, and no bending loss for 500 mu m curvature radius at 1.3 mu m wavelength is achieved for an optical waveguide having a relative index difference of 5.6%.<>     

DRAM plate electrode bias optimization for reducing leakage current in UV-O/sub 3/ and O/sub 2/ annealed CVD deposited Ta/sub 2/O/sub 5/ dielectric films

A new plate biasing scheme is described which allowed the use of 65% higher supply voltage without increasing the leakage current for the UV-O/sub 3/ and O/sub 2/ annealed chemical-vapor-deposited tantalum pentaoxide dielectric film capacitors in stacked DRAM cells. Dielectric leakage was reduced by biasing the capacitor plate electrode to a voltage lower than the conventionally used value of V/sub cc//2. Ta/sub 2/O/sub 5/ films with 3.9 nm effective gate oxide, 8.5 fF//spl mu/m/sup 2/ capacitance and <0.3 /spl mu/A/cm/sup 2/ leakage at 100/spl deg/C and 3.3 V supply are demonstrated.<>     

High-performance Pt/SrBi/sub 2/Ta/sub 2/O/sub 9//HfO/sub 2//Si structure for nondestructive readout memory

Metal-ferroelectric-insulator-semiconductor (MFIS) capacitors with 390-nm-thick SrBi/sub 2/Ta/sub 2/O/sub 9/ (SBT) ferroelectric film and 8-nm-thick hafnium oxide (HfO/sub 2/) layer on silicon substrate have been fabricated and characterized. It is demonstrated for the first time that the MFIS stack exhibits a large memory window of around 1.08 V at an operation voltage of 3.5 V. Moreover, the MFIS memory structure suffers only 18% degradation in the memory window after 10/sup 9/ switching cycles. The excellent performance is attributed to the formation of well-crystallized SBT perovskite thin film on top of the HfO/sub 2/ buffer layer, as evidenced by the distinctive sharp peaks in X-ray diffraction (XRD) spectra. In addition to its relatively high /spl kappa/ value, HfO/sub 2/ also serves as a good seed layer for SBT crystallization, making the proposed Pt/SrBi/sub 2/Ta/sub 2/O/sub 9//HfO/sub 2//Si structure ideally suitable for low-voltage and high-performance ferroelectric memories.     

A novel MONOS-type nonvolatile memory using high-/spl kappa/ dielectrics for improved data retention and programming speed

This paper presents a novel metal-oxide-nitride-oxide-silicon (MONOS)-type nonvolatile memory structure using hafnium oxide (HfO/sub 2/) as tunneling and blocking layer and tantalum pentoxide (Ta/sub 2/O/sub 5/) as the charge trapping layer. The superiorities of such devices to traditional SiO/sub 2/-Si/sub 3/N/sub 4/-SiO/sub 2/ stack devices in obtaining a better tradeoff between faster programming and better retention are illustrated based on a band engineering analysis. The experimental results demonstrate that the fabricated devices can be programmed as fast as 1 /spl mu/s and erased from 10 ns at an 8-V gate bias. The retention decay rate of this device is improved by a factor more than three as compared to the conventional MONOS/SONOS type devices. Excellent endurance and read disturb performance are also demonstrated.     

Direct nitridation of high-k metal oxide thin films using argon excimer sources

Reported, for the first time, is the formation of metal oxynitride thin films via direct nitridation of the metal oxide films by active nitrogen species generated from molecular nitrogen with argon excimer sources. Preliminary results on TaO/sub x/N/sub y/ thin films formed from 9 nm Ta/sub 2/O/sub 5/ films have exhibited excellent electrical properties with three orders magnitude lower leakage current density being achieved and 25% higher accumulation capacitance being obtained. The nitridation process for a specific film thickness can be optimised by adjusting the VUV irradiation time to achieve both increased accumulation capacitance and improved leakage property, without the need for the use of H/sub 2/O, NH/sub 3/ or high temperature substrate heating.     

用于红外激光传输及光纤传感应用的矩形Y_2O_3-ZrO_2单晶光波导

通过精确的切割和良好的抛光 ,从Y2 O3 稳定的ZrO2 块状单晶制得可用于红外激光传输及光纤高温传感的高品质Y2 O3 ZrO2 单晶矩形光波导 .获得的矩形波导截面大于 1mm× 1mm ,长度在 4 5mm～ 6 5mm之间 .波导的光学性能比用常规LHPG系统生长的Y2 O3 ZrO2 单晶光纤优越得多 ,在 90 0nm波长处的光学损耗小于 0 .0 3dB cm ,对 1.0 6 μmNd :YAG激光脉冲的损伤阈值为 0 .98MW cm2 ,并且能耐受 2 30 0℃的高温 .实验结果表明 ,这些波导有望在红外激光传输和 2 0 0 0℃以上的高温光纤传感等领域得到应用 .     

Very high density RF MIM capacitors (17 fF//spl mu/m/sup 2/) using high-/spl kappa/ Al/sub 2/O/sub 3/ doped Ta/sub 2/O/sub 5/ dielectrics

Using high-/spl kappa/ Al/sub 2/O/sub 3/ doped Ta/sub 2/O/sub 5/ dielectric, we have obtained record high MIM capacitance density of 17 fF//spl mu/m/sup 2/ at 100 kHz, small 5% capacitance reduction to RF frequency range, and low leakage current density of 8.9/spl times/10/sup -7/ A/cm/sup 2/. In combination of both high capacitor density and low leakage current density, a very low leakage current of 5.2/spl times/10/sup -12/ A is calculated for a typical large 10 pF capacitor used in RF IC that is even smaller than that of a deep sub-/spl mu/m MOSFET. This very high capacitance density with good MIM capacitor characteristics can significantly reduce the chip size of RF ICs.     

Silica-clad neodymium-doped lanthanum phosphate fibers and fiber lasers

We have fabricated a neodymium-doped phosphate glass fiber with a silica cladding and used it to form a fiber laser. Phosphate and silicate glasses have considerably different glass transition temperatures and softening points making it hard to draw a fiber from these two glasses. A bulk phosphate glass of composition (Nd/sub 2/O/sub 3/)/sub 0.011/(La/sub 2/O/sub 3/)/sub 0.259/(P/sub 2/O/sub 5/)/sub 0.725/(Al/sub 2/O/sub 3/)/sub 0.005/ was prepared and the resultant material was transparent, free from bubbles and visibly homogeneous. The bulk phosphate glass was drawn to a fiber while being jacketed with silica and the resultant structure was of good optical quality, free from air bubbles and major defects. The attenuation at a wavelength of 1.06 /spl mu/m was 0.05 dB/cm and the refractive index of the core and cladding at the pump wavelength of 488 nm was 1.56 and 1.46, respectively. The fibers were mechanically strong enough to allow for ease of handling and could be spliced to conventional silica fiber. The fibers were used to demonstrate lasing at the /sup 4/F/sub 3/2/-/sup 4/I/sub 11/2/ (1.06 /spl mu/m) transition. Our work demonstrates the potential to form silica clad optical fibers with phosphate cores doped with very high levels of rare-earth ions (27-mol % rare-earth oxide).     

BTNT系陶瓷的微波特性研究

研究了BaO-TiO2-Nd2O3-Ta2O5(BTNT)系陶瓷材料的结构和微波特性，实验结果证明：五种组分的BTNT系材料具有钨青铜结构，用此类材料研制的微波单片陶瓷电容器（SLC）具有良好的高频和微波特性。     

SiO2/Ta界面反应及其对铜扩散的影响

利用磁控溅射方法在表面有SiO2层的Si基片上溅射Ta/NiFe薄膜,采用X射线光电子能谱(XPS)研究了SiO2/Ta界面以及Ta5Si3标准样品,并进行计算机谱图拟合分析.实验结果表明在制备态下在SiO2/Ta界面处发生了热力学上有利的化学反应:37Ta+15SiO2=5Ta5Si3+6Ta2O5,界面处形成更稳定的化合物新相Ta5Si3、Ta2O5.在采用Ta作阻挡层的ULSI铜互连结构中这些反应产物可能有利于对Cu扩散的阻挡.