Electron Cyclotron Resonance Plasma-Enhanced Metalorganic Chemical Vapor Deposition of Tantalum Oxide Thin Films on Silicon near Room Temperature

Films of tantalum oxide, ranging in thickness from 25 to 2000 nm, were successfully deposited on silicon by the electron cyclotron resonance plasma-enhanced metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (ECR-MOCVD) process at deposition rates of up to 33 nm/min. The films were produced by decomposition of tantalum pentaethoxide into tantalum oxide in an oxygen ECR microwave plasma. The films were amorphous (but fully dense) since the temperature of the substrate, which was unheated, was estimated to be 76–120°C. The growth of the tantalum oxide films was accompanied by the formation of an interlayer of silicon dioxide at the silicon interface. The tantalum oxide films were oxygen rich (relative to Ta₂O₅). The effective relative dielectric constant of these dual-layer dielectrics ranged from ?_ef= 8.5 to 24; this range was explained in terms of a bilayer consisting of a 13-nm-thick silicon dioxide layer of ?_sx= 4, and a tantalum oxide overgrowth of varying thickness having ?_tx～ 25. A maximum breakdown strength of the films was 6.9 MV/cm and the leakage current at a field of 1 MV/cm was 3.0 × 10^-8. The breakdown properties were related to the presence of stray particles on the substrate; these properties are expected to improve considerably if the processing is carried out in a clean-room environment. The silicon dioxide layer is believed to have grown by the diffusion of oxygen through the tantalum oxide overlayer despite the low substrate temperature.