Electrical characteristics of MOS capacitor with HfTiON gate dielectric and HfTiSiON interlayer

The paper reports that HfTiO dielectric is deposited by reactive co-sputtering of Hf and Ti targets in an Ar/O₂ ambience, followed by an annealing in different gas ambiences of N₂, NO and NH₃ at 600℃ for 2 min. Capacitance--voltage and gate-leakage properties are characterized and compared. The results indicate that the NO-annealed sample exhibits the lowest interface-state and dielectric-charge densities and best device reliability. This is attributed to the fact that nitridation can create strong Si \equiv N bonds to passivate dangling Si bonds and replace strained Si--O bonds, thus the sample forms a hardened dielectric/Si interface with high reliability.     

Electrical properties and reliability of HfO2 gate-dielectric MOS capacitors with trichloroethylene surface pretreatment

Trichloroethylene （TCE） pretreatment of Si surface prior to HfO2 deposition is employed to fabricate HfO2 gatedielectric MOS capacitors. Influence of this processing procedure on interlayer growth, HfO2/Si interface properties, gate-oxide leakage and device reliability is investigated. Among the surface pretreatments in NH3, NO, N2O and TCE ambients, the TCE pretreatment gives the least interlayer growths the lowest interface-state density, the smallest gate leakage and the highest reliability. All these improvements should be ascribed to the passivation effects of Cl2 and HC1 on the structural defects in the interlayer and at the interface, and also their gettering effects on the ion contamination in the gate dielectric.