Improved interface quality and charge-trapping characteristics of MOSFETs with high-/spl kappa/ gate dielectric

The effects of high-pressure annealing on interface properties and charge trapping of nMOSFET with high-/spl kappa/ dielectric were investigated. Comparing with conventional forming gas (H/sub 2//Ar=4%/96%) annealed sample, nMOSFET sample annealed in high-pressure (5-20 atm), pure H/sub 2/ ambient at 400/spl deg/C shows 10%-15% improvements in linear drain current (I/sub d/) and maximum transconductance (g/sub m,max/). Interface trap density and charge trapping properties were characterized with charge pumping measurements and "single pulsed" I/sub d/-V/sub g/ measurements where reduced interface state density and improved charge trapping characteristics were observed after high pressure annealing. These results indicate that high pressure pure hydrogen annealing can be a crucial process for future high-/spl kappa/ gate dielectric applications.     

The electrical and material characterization of hafnium oxynitride gate dielectrics with TaN-gate electrode

Electrical and material characteristics of hafnium oxynitride (HfON) gate dielectrics have been studied in comparison with HfO/sub 2/. HfON was prepared by a deposition of HfN followed by post-deposition-anneal (PDA). By secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS), incorporated nitrogen in the HfON was found to pile up at the dielectric/Si interface layer. Based on the SIMS profile, the interfacial layer (IL) composition of the HfON films appeared to be like hafnium-silicon-oxynitride (HfSiON) while the IL of the HfO/sub 2/ films seemed to be hafnium-silicate (HfSiO). HfON showed an increase of 300/spl deg/C in crystallization temperature compared to HfO/sub 2/. Dielectric constants of bulk and interface layer of HfON were 21 and 14, respectively. The dielectric constant of interfacial layer in HfON (/spl sim/14) is larger than that of HfO/sub 2/ (/spl sim/7.8). HfON dielectrics exhibit /spl sim/10/spl times/ lower leakage current (J) than HfO/sub 2/ for the same EOTs before post-metal anneal (PMA), while /spl sim/40/spl times/ lower J after PMA. The improved electrical properties of HfON over HfO/sub 2/ can be explained by the thicker physical thickness of HfON for the same equivalent oxide thickness (EOT) due to its higher dielectric constant as well as a more stable interface layer. Capacitance hysteresis (/spl Delta/V) of HfON capacitor was found to be slightly larger than that of HfO/sub 2/. Without high temperature forming gas anneal, nMOSFET with HfON gate dielectric showed a peak mobility of 71 cm/sup 2//Vsec. By high temperature forming gas anneal at 600/spl deg/C, mobility improved up to 256 cm/sup 2//Vsec.     

Electrical characterization and material evaluation of zirconium oxynitride gate dielectric in TaN-gated NMOSFETs with high-temperature forming gas annealing

The electrical, material, and reliability characteristics of zirconium oxynitride (Zr-oxynitride) gate dielectrics were evaluated. The nitrogen (/spl sim/1.7%) in Zr-oxynitride was primarily located at the Zr-oxynitride/Si interface and helped to preserve the composition of the nitrogen-doped Zr-silicate interfacial layer (IL) during annealing as compared to the ZrO/sub 2/ IL - resulting in improved thermal stability of the Zr-oxynitride. In addition, the Zr-oxynitride demonstrated a higher crystallization temperature (/spl sim/600/spl deg/C) as compared to ZrO/sub 2/ (/spl sim/400/spl deg/C). Reliability characterization was performed after TaN-gated nMOSFET fabrication of Zr-oxynitride and ZrO/sub 2/ devices with equivalent oxide thickness (EOTs) of 10.3 /spl Aring/ and 13.8 /spl Aring/, respectively. Time-zero dielectric breakdown and time-dependent dielectric breakdown (TDDB) characteristics revealed higher dielectric strength and effective breakdown field for the Zr-oxynitride. High-temperature forming gas (HTFG) annealing on TaN/Zr-oxynitride nMOSFETs with an EOT of 11.6 /spl Aring/ demonstrated reduced D/sub it/, which resulted in reduced swing (69 mV/decade), reduced off-state leakage current, higher transconductance, and higher mobility. The peak mobility was increased by almost fourfold from 97 cm/sup 2//V/spl middot/s to 383 cm/sup 2//V/spl middot/s after 600/spl deg/C HTFG annealing.     

A characteristics-based finite element method for transmission line problem

This paper presents a numerical model of transmission line equations based on a combination of the finite element method and the generalized method of characteristics. A local system of the transmission line finite element is obtained using the generalized method of characteristics applied to the Telegrapher's equations. In this way, a spatial functional approximation using local shape functions together with the generalized trapezoidal rule used for time integration as it is done in the classical finite element formulation is avoided and higher accuracy of results is obtained. In order to show the essential principles of the proposed numerical method, for sake of simplicity, the scope of the paper is restricted to a single transmission line problem at the low frequency regime.     

A spectral-domain method for multiple scattering in continuousrandomly irregular media

A spectral-domain method for computing the first and second-order moments of a scalar wavefield propagating in a continuous randomly irregular medium is described. The scattering is characterized by the moments of incremental forward and backward scattering functions. Approximate forms for these moments are given in terms of the spectral density function of the relative permittivity fluctuations. Solutions are developed for incident plane and spherical waves. Well-known results that are usually derived from the parabolic wave equation using the Markov approximation are easily recovered from the general solutions. The results show that backscatter enhancements depend on the correlation between the forward and backward scattered waves. Computations are performed to illustrate the effects of backscatter on VHF transionospheric radiowaves     

Guest editorial

This paper applies network flow method, genetic algorithms, and Monte Carlo simulation to optimal reliability design for a composite electric power system. Genetic algorithms are general purpose optimization techniques based on principles inspired from the biological evolution using three main operations of reproduction, crossover, and mutation, which could locate near optimal solutions in most cases. The proposed method primarily adopted Monte Carlo simulation method, maximum-flow minimum-cut theorem, and optimization techniques to find out the optimal values of reliability indices, such that the optimal reliability design for the system can be achieved. The objective function to be optimized is composed of interruption cost and installation cost. The reliability indices mainly used include expected demand not served (EDNS) and forced outage rate (FOR). An application of the proposed method conducted on an IEEE five-bus test system is presented.     

Numerical simulation of low-grazing-angle ocean microwavebackscatter and its relation to sea spikes

This paper presents the results of numerically simulating microwave backscatter from a deep-water breaking wave profile. Enhanced microwave backscatter from the crests of breaking waves has been hypothesized as the source of bright short-lived microwave radar echoes that are observed at low-grazing angles (LGAs). The characteristics of these “sea spikes” are distinctly different from the Bragg-scatter echoes that dominate measurements made at moderate grazing angles. Of particular interest is the high contrast that sea spikes present against ocean background backscatter when observed with horizontally polarized transmit/receive configurations [horizontal (HH) versus vertical (VV)]. This HH/VV contrast disparity has been attributed to polarization-selective cancellation of the direct reflection from the wave crest by the surface reflection. This hypothesis is reinforced first by showing evidence that VV polarization is suppressed in the intensity range that would normally be populated by the brightest scatterers. Histograms of unaveraged Doppler-centroid measurements show further that the depleted VV backscatter population is responding to scatterers that are moving much more slowly than the HH scatterers. The Doppler-centroid histograms provide a sharper delination between the two scattering populations than do the unconditionally averaged Doppler spectra that are more commonly reported. Finally, our numerical simulations show evidence of an interference mechanism that selectively suppresses VV backscatter. In our simulations, the polarization selectivity comes from the phase dependence of the backscatter from the wave crest. A Brewster phenomenon at the surface reflection point is not necessary