Interfacial defect states in HfO/sub 2/ and ZrO/sub 2/ nMOS capacitors

A comprehensive analysis of the bump/kink observed in the experimental capacitance-voltage (C-V) curves of HfO/sub 2/ and ZrO/sub 2/ capacitors was performed using self-consistent numerical simulations. Both HfO/sub 2/ samples grown by sputter deposition and grown by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) were examined. The bumps in the C-V curves were found to be consistent with an interface state centered 0.25 eV above the valence bandedge for the sputter deposited devices, and 0.30 eV above the bandedge for the MOCVD devices. Annealing of the HfO/sub 2/ devices reduced the densities of these traps, but also increased the effective oxide thickness. Similar defect states were detected for the ZrO/sub 2/ devices centered 0.25 eV above the valence bandedge.     

ZnO transparent thin-film transistors with HfO/sub 2//Ta/sub 2/O/sub 5/ stacking gate dielectrics

The performance improvement of ZnO thin-film transistors (TFTs) using HfO₂/Ta₂O₅ stacked gate dielectrics was demonstrated. The ZnO TFTs exhibited transistor behaviour over the range 0-10 V; the field effect mobility, subthreshold slope and on/off ratio were measured to be 1.3 cm² V^-1 s^-1, 0.5 V/decade and ~10⁶, respectively.     

Real-time multivariable control of PECVD silicon nitride filmproperties

This paper reports on the application of quadrupole mass spectrometry (QMS) sensing to real-time multivariable control of film properties in a plasma-enhanced CVD silicon nitride process. Process variables believed to be most important to film deposition are defined (i.e., disilane pressure, triaminosilane pressure, and dc bias voltage) and their responses to system inputs are modeled experimentally. Then, a real-time controller uses this information to manipulate the process variables and hence film performance in real time during film deposition. The relationships between gas concentrations and film performance are shown explicitly where the controller was used to drive the concentrations to constant setpoints. Also, an experiment investigating the effects of an out-of-calibration mass flow controller demonstrates the compensating ability of the real-time controller. The results indicate that in situ sensor-based control using quadrupole mass spectrometry can significantly assist in optimizing film properties, reducing drift during a run, reducing run-to-run drift, creating a better understanding of the process, and making the system tolerant to disturbances     

Polarisation-insensitive Si/sub 3/N/sub 4/ strip-loaded BaTiO/sub 3/ thin-film waveguide with low propagation losses

A low-loss and polarisation-insensitive singlemode BaTiO/sub 3/ thin-film waveguide is reported. Polarisation-dependent loss as low as 0.1 dB/cm at a wavelength of 1.55 /spl mu/m has been achieved by a novel Si/sub 3/N/sub 4/ strip-loaded BaTiO/sub 3/ waveguide structure. Propagation loss of less than 0.9 dB/cm for both TE and TM polarisations was measured     

Band diagram and carrier conduction mechanisms in ZrO/sub 2/ MIS structures

Energy-band diagrams and carrier-conduction mechanisms in ZrO/sub 2/ dielectrics were investigated by using X-ray photoemission spectroscopy and carrier separation measurements for ZrO/sub 2/ /Zr-silicate/Si structures. It was found that the carrier conduction mechanisms in ZrO/sub 2/ layer dominate the leakage current in the ZrO/sub 2/ /Zr-silicate/Si-stacked structure. Furthermore, it was found that the dominant electron conduction mechanism in ZrO/sub 2/ dielectrics is a Poole-Frenkel (P-F) conduction and that the dominant hole conduction mechanism in ZrO/sub 2/ dielectrics is a Fowler-Nordheim conduction. On the basis of the understanding of these carrier conduction mechanisms, it was indicated that the leakage current density in the dielectrics with the P-F conduction mechanism having the small barrier height of 0.8 eV could not be reduced below 1 A/cm/sup 2/ at the operation voltage of 1 V. Furthermore, we suggest that the ultrathin Zr-silicate single layer is a promising candidate gate dielectric material for advanced MISFET having 1-nm effective thickness.     

Preparation and growth of thin film Pb/sub 2/Sr/sub 2/Ca/sub 0.5/Y/sub 0.5/Cu/sub 3/O/sub 8+ delta / superconductors by laser ablation

For the first time, the preparation of thin films of superconducting Pb/sub 2/Sr/sub 2/Y/sub 0.5/Ca/sub 0.5/Cu/sub 3/O/sub 8+ delta / material using standard bulk target preparation conditions and the laser ablation technique is reported. In common with much of the bulk characteristics, it is found that the width of the superconducting transition is large, extending from T/sub c,onset/ between 70-83 K and T/sub c,zero/ between 16-20 K.<>     

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.     

TeO/sub 2/-based glasses containing Nb/sub 2/O/sub 5/, TiO/sub 2/, and WO/sub 3/ for discrete Raman fiber amplification

We describe a highly stable glass family based on the combination of TeO/sub 2/ with heavy metal-oxides of Nb, Ti, W. We show that these glasses have large Raman gain, a broad Raman spectrum, and large negative dispersion. They are, thus, potentially useful in a variety of specialty fiber applications, such as discrete Raman amplification.     

1.55 /spl mu/m bottom-emitting InAlGaAs VCSELs with Al/sub 2/O/sub 3//a-Si thin-film pairs as top mirror

A a 1.55 /spl mu/m InAlGaAs/InP vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser grown by metal-organic chemical vapour deposition is presented. Al/sub 2/O/sub 3//a-Si thin-film pairs and InAlGaAs/InAlAs epitaxial layers are used as a top mirror and a bottom-side output coupler, respectively. Direct modulation characteristics through singlemode fibre are reported at a speed of 2.5 Gbit/s.     

Reduced PFC emissions and gas consumption using a c-C/sub 4/F/sub 8/-based PECVD chamber clean chemistry

Perfluorocompounds (PFCs) used in semiconductor manufacturing are potential contributors to greenhouse gas-driven climate change. PFCs emitted from plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) chamber cleans can be a significant portion of the total PFC emissions for a typical semiconductor fabrication facility. Previous work adopting octafluorocyclobutane (c-C/sub 4/F/sub 8/) clean chemistries to reduce gas consumption and PFC emissions have been reported on applied materials and novellus PECVD tools. In this study, c-C/sub 4/F/sub 8/ was evaluated as an alternative chamber clean gas on Mattson ASPEN II PECVD tools. A statistical design of experiment (DOE) methodology and tool emission analysis by Fourier transform infrared spectrometry were used to develop a low gas consumption and low PFC emission process. This c-C/sub 4/F/sub 8/ process reduced the clean gas consumption by 65% and PFC emission by 78%, compared to our current C/sub 2/F/sub 6/ clean with no impact on deposited film properties or process repeatability.     

Evidence of enhanced hypersensitive transition in erbium-doped fibers with different Al/sub 2/O/sub 3/ content

Precise spectroscopic absorption measurements of erbium-doped aluminosilicate fibers with different Al/sub 2/O/sub 3/ content were performed with the Judd-Ofelt analysis. From the Judd-Ofelt analysis, the /spl Omega//sub 2/ parameters of Er/sup 3+/ ions in these fibers were found to be about three times as large as those in aluminosilicate bulk glasses. The enhancement of the /spl Omega//sub 2/ parameters led to much stronger line strength of hypersensitive transitions in a fiber form than in a bulk glass form. This indicates that the distortion of the ligand field around the Er/sup 3+/ ions are more enhanced in a fiber form than in a bulk glass form. Furthermore, the /spl Omega//sub 6/ and the /spl Omega//sub 2/ parameters increased with an increase of q content up to 20 000 ppm. This Al/sub 2/O/sub 3/-content dependence of the /spl Omega//sub 6/ parameter was consistent with that of the line strength and the spontaneous emission probabilities of the transition corresponding to the /sup 4/I/sub 13/2//spl rarr//sup 4/I/sub 15/2/.     

Modeling of tunneling currents through HfO/sub 2/ and (HfO/sub 2/)/sub x/(Al/sub 2/O/sub 3/)/sub 1-x/ gate stacks

We present a physical modeling of tunneling currents through ultrathin high-/spl kappa/ gate stacks, which includes an ultrathin interface layer, both electron and hole quantization in the substrate and gate electrode, and energy band offsets between high-/spl kappa/ dielectrics and Si determined from high-resolution XPS. Excellent agreements between simulated and experimentally measured tunneling currents have been obtained for chemical vapor deposited and physical vapor deposited HfO/sub 2/ with and without NH/sub 3/-based interface layers, and ALD Al/sub 2/O/sub 3/ gate stacks with different EOT and bias polarities. This model is applied to more thermally stable (HfO/sub 2/)/sub x/(Al/sub 2/O/sub 3/)/sub 1-x/ gate stacks in order to project their scalability for future CMOS applications.     

An optical investigation of electronic excitations in the high temperature superconductors YBa/sub 2/Cu/sub 3/O/sub 7- delta / and Bi/sub 2/Sr/sub 2/CaCu/sub 2/O/sub 8+ Delta /

The results of Raman scattering from superconducting gap excitations in the high T/sub c/ compounds YBa/sub 2/Cu/sub 3/O/sub 7- delta / and Bi/sub 2/Sr/sub 2/CaCu/sub 2/O/sub 8+ Delta / are compared. In the normal state, both materials exhibit strong electronic interband scattering which manifests itself as a broad background continuum having both A/sub 1g/ and B/sub 1g/ symmetry components. At low temperatures a redistribution of this electronic scattering occurs, indicative of the formation of a superconducting gap in these compounds. The two symmetries exhibit distinct redistribution, however, denoting strong anisotropy. At temperatures well below T/sub c/, both compounds exhibit residual low-energy scattering, a feature suggestive of the coexistence of normal electrons and superconducting quasi-particles.<>     

Interfacial polarisation in Al-Y/sub 2/O/sub 3/-SiO/sub 2/-Si capacitor

The variation by a factor of 2 in the observed permittivity of yttrium oxide film is explained in terms of interfacial polarization based on the Y/sub 2/O/sub 3//SiO/sub 2/ double-layer model. Provided the dielectric relaxation time constants of the two layers are grossly dissimilar, the model can also explain the frequency independence of the composite capacitor.<>     

Low-frequency noise in submicrometer MOSFETs with HfO/sub 2/, HfO/sub 2//Al/sub 2/O/sub 3/ and HfAlO/sub x/ gate stacks

Low-frequency noise measurements were performed on p- and n-channel MOSFETs with HfO/sub 2/, HfAlO/sub x/ and HfO/sub 2//Al/sub 2/O/sub 3/ as the gate dielectric materials. The gate length varied from 0.135 to 0.36 /spl mu/m with 10.02 /spl mu/m gate width. The equivalent oxide thicknesses were: HfO/sub 2/ 23 /spl Aring/, HfAlO/sub x/ 28.5 /spl Aring/ and HfO/sub 2//Al/sub 2/O/sub 3/ 33 /spl Aring/. In addition to the core structures with only about 10 /spl Aring/ of oxide between the high-K dielectric and silicon substrate, there were "double-gate oxide" structures where an interfacial oxide layer of 40 /spl Aring/ was grown between the high-K dielectric and Si. DC analysis showed low gate leakage currents in the order of 10/sup -12/ A(2-5 /spl times/ 10/sup -5/ A/cm/sup 2/) for the devices and, in general, yielded higher threshold voltages and lower mobility values when compared to the corresponding SiO/sub 2/ devices. The unified number-mobility fluctuation model was used to account for the observed 1/f noise and to extract the oxide trap density, which ranged from 1.8 /spl times/ 10/sup 17/ cm/sup -3/ eV/sup -1/ to 1, 3 /spl times/ 10/sup 19/ cm/sup -3/ eV/sup -1/ somewhat higher compared to conventional SiO/sub 2/ MOSFETs with the similar device dimensions. There was no evidence of single electron switching events or random telegraph signals. The aim of this paper is to present a general discussion on low-frequency noise characteristics of the three different high-K/gate stacks, relative comparison among them and to the Si-SiO/sub 2/ system.     

Low-frequency noise in submicrometer MOSFETs with HfO/sub 2/, HfO/sub 2//Al/sub 2/O/sub 3/ and HfAlO/sub x/ gate stacks

Low-frequency noise measurements were performed on p- and n-channel MOSFETs with HfO/sub 2/, HfAlO/sub x/ and HfO/sub 2//Al/sub 2/O/sub 3/ as the gate dielectric materials. The gate length varied from 0.135 to 0.36 /spl mu/m with 10.02 /spl mu/m gate width. The equivalent oxide thicknesses were: HfO/sub 2/ 23 /spl Aring/, HfAlO/sub x/ 28.5 /spl Aring/ and HfO/sub 2//Al/sub 2/O/sub 3/ 33 /spl Aring/. In addition to the core structures with only about 10 /spl Aring/ of oxide between the high-/spl kappa/ dielectric and silicon substrate, there were "double-gate oxide" structures where an interfacial oxide layer of 40 /spl Aring/ was grown between the high-/spl kappa/ dielectric and Si. DC analysis showed low gate leakage currents in the order of 10/sup -12/A(2-5/spl times/10/sup -5/ A/cm/sup 2/) for the devices and, in general, yielded higher threshold voltages and lower mobility values when compared to the corresponding SiO/sub 2/ devices. The unified number-mobility fluctuation model was used to account for the observed 1/f noise and to extract the oxide trap density, which ranged from 1.8/spl times/10/sup 17/ cm/sup -3/eV/sup -1/ to 1.3/spl times/10/sup 19/ cm/sup -3/eV/sup -1/, somewhat higher compared to conventional SiO/sub 2/ MOSFETs with the similar device dimensions. There was no evidence of single electron switching events or random telegraph signals. The aim of this paper is to present a general discussion on low-frequency noise characteristics of the three different high-/spl kappa//gate stacks, relative comparison among them and to the Si--SiO/sub 2/ system.     

Metal-insulator-metal RF bypass capacitor using niobium oxide (Nb/sub 2/O/sub 5/) with HfO/sub 2//Al/sub 2/O/sub 3/ barriers

A high capacitance density (C/sub density/) metal-insulator-metal (MIM) capacitor with niobium pentoxide (Nb/sub 2/O/sub 5/) whose k value is higher than 40, is developed for integrated RF bypass or decoupling capacitor application. Nb/sub 2/O/sub 5/ MIM with HfO/sub 2//Al/sub 2/O/sub 3/ barriers delivers a high C/sub density/ of >17 fF//spl mu/m/sup 2/ with excellent RF properties, while maintaining comparable leakage current and reliability properties with other high-k dielectrics. The capacitance from the dielectric is shown to be stable up to 20 GHz, and resonant frequency of 4.2 GHz and Q of 50 (at 1 GHz) is demonstrated when the capacitor is integrated using Cu-BEOL process.     

Ultrathin Al/sub 2/O/sub 3/ and HfO/sub 2/ gate dielectrics on surface-nitrided Ge

We have studied ultrathin Al/sub 2/O/sub 3/ and HfO/sub 2/ gate dielectrics on Ge grown by ultrahigh vacuum-reactive atomic-beam deposition and ultraviolet ozone oxidation. Al/sub 2/O/sub 3/-Ge gate stack had a t/sub eq//spl sim/23 /spl Aring/, and three orders of magnitude lower leakage current compared to SiO/sub 2/. HfO/sub 2/-Ge allowed even greater scaling, achieving t/sub eq//spl sim/11 /spl Aring/ and six orders of magnitude lower leakage current compared to SiO/sub 2/. We have carried out a detailed study of cleaning conditions for the Ge wafer, dielectric deposition condition, and anneal conditions and their effect on the electrical properties of metal-gated dielectric-Ge capacitors. We show that surface nitridation is important in reducing hysteresis, interfacial layer formation and leakage current. However, surface nitridation also introduces positive trapped charges and/or dipoles at the interface, resulting in significant flatband voltage shifts, which are mitigated by post-deposition anneals.     

A novel strained Si/sub 0.7/Ge/sub 0.3/ surface-channel pMOSFET with an ALD TiN/Al/sub 2/O/sub 3//HfAlO/sub x//Al/sub 2/O/sub 3/ gate stack

Proof-of-concept pMOSFETs with a strained-Si/sub 0.7/Ge/sub 0.3/ surface-channel deposited by selective epitaxy and a TiN/Al/sub 2/O/sub 3//HfAlO/sub x//Al/sub 2/O/sub 3/ gate stack grown by atomic layer chemical vapor deposition (ALD) techniques were fabricated. The Si/sub 0.7/Ge/sub 0.3/ pMOSFETs exhibited more than 30% higher current drive and peak transconductance than reference Si pMOSFETs with the same gate stack. The effective mobility for the Si reference coincided with the universal hole mobility curve for Si. The presence of a relatively low density of interface states, determined as 3.3 /spl times/ 10/sup 11/ cm/sup -2/ eV/sup -1/, yielded a subthreshold slope of 75 mV/dec. for the Si reference. For the Si/sub 0.7/Ge/sub 0.3/ pMOSFETs, these values were 1.6 /spl times/ 10/sup 12/ cm/sup -2/ eV/sup -1/ and 110 mV/dec., respectively.