Influence of the spatial distribution of border traps in the capacitance frequency dispersion of Al2O3/InGaAs

In this paper, the capacitance frequency dispersion in strong accumulation of capacitance voltage curves has been studied for different high-k dielectric layers in MOS stacks. By studying experimental data at low (77 K) and room temperature (300 K), in oxides with different density of defects, it was possible reflect the spatial distribution of the defects in the capacitance frequency dispersion. The experimental data show that while at room temperature, the capacitance dispersion is dominated by the exchange of carriers from the semiconductor into oxide traps far away from the interface, at low temperature the oxide traps near the Al2O3/InGaAs interface are responsible for the frequency dispersion. The results indicate that the capacitance dispersion in strong accumulation reflect the spatial distribution of traps within the oxide, and that dielectric/semiconductor conduction band offset is a critical parameter for determining the capacitance dispersion for Al2O3/InGaAs based gate stacks.Fil: Palumbo, Félix Roberto Mario. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional; ArgentinaFil: Aguirre, Fernando Leonel. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica; ArgentinaFil: Pazos, Sebastián Matías. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional; Argentina. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica; ArgentinaFil: Krylov, Igor. Technion - Israel Institute of Technology; IsraelFil: Winter, Roy. Technion - Israel Institute of Technology; IsraelFil: Eizenberg, Moshe. Technion - Israel Institute of Technology; Israe

Hf-based high-k dielectrics for p-Ge MOS gate stacks

The physical and electrical properties of the gate stack high-k/Al2O3/GeO2/p-Ge were studied in detail, where the high-k is either HfO2 or alloyed HfO2 (HfZrOy, HfGdOx, or HfAlOx). Electrical measurements combined with x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy chemical bonding analysis and band alignment determination were conducted in order to assess the suitability of hafnium-based high-k for this kind of gate stacks, with emphasis on low density of interface states and border traps. HfAlOx was found to be the most promising high-k from those studied. The authors have also found that the current- voltage trends for the various systems studied can be explained by the band alignment of the samples obtained by our x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis.Fil: Fadida, Sivan. Technion - Israel Institute of Technology; IsraelFil: Palumbo, Félix Roberto Mario. Technion - Israel Institute of Technology; Israel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Nyns, Laura. Imec; BélgicaFil: Lin, Dennis. Imec; BélgicaFil: Van Elshocht, Sven. Imec; BélgicaFil: Caymax, Matty. Imec; BélgicaFil: Eizenberg, Moshe. Technion - Israel Institute of Technology; Israe

Physical mechanism of progressive breakdown in gate oxides

The definition of the basic physical mechanisms of the dielectric breakdown (BD) phenomenon is still an open area of research. In particular, in advanced complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) circuits, the BD of gate dielectrics occurs in the regime of relatively low voltage and very high electric field; this is of enormous technological importance, and thus widely investigated but still not well understood. Such BD is characterized by a gradual, progressive growth of the gate leakage through a localized BD spot. In this paper, we report for the first time experimental data and a model which provide understanding of the main physical mechanism responsible for the progressive BD growth. We demonstrate the ability to control the breakdown growth rate of a number of gate dielectrics and provide a physical model of the observed behavior, allowing to considerably improve the reliability margins of CMOS circuits by choosing a correct combination of voltage, thickness, and thermal conductivity of the gate dielectric.Fil: Palumbo, Félix Roberto Mario. Technion - Israel Institute of Technology; IsraelFil: Lombardo, Salvatore. Istituto per la Microelettronica e Microsistemi. Catania; ItaliaFil: Eizenberg, Moshe. Technion - Israel Institute of Technology; Israe

Influence of gate oxides with high thermal conductivity on the failure distribution of InGaAs-based MOS stacks

In this work, the breakdown transients of metal-oxide-semiconductors (MOS) stacks with InGaAs channels and different oxide layers (Al2O3,HfO2 and Si3N4) have been studied in terms of the time-to-breakdown and the duration of the progressive breakdown regime. It is observed that dielectric layers with higher thermal conductivity show larger transient time during the progressive breakdown regime, and this provides a significant lifetime extension across the entire failure distribution. This is attributed to a lower temperature of the percolation path which reduces local electro-migration. Moreover, the overall results show that the progressive breakdown regime is uncorrelated with the initial degradation rate, and that the bending of failure distribution at low percentiles is exclusively attributed to the progressive increase of the gate current during the breakdown event.Fil: Palumbo, Félix Roberto Mario. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional; Argentina. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Gerencia del Área Investigaciones y Aplicaciones no Nucleares; ArgentinaFil: Lombardo,Salvatore. Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche; ItaliaFil: Eizenberg, Moshe. Technion - Israel Institute of Technology; Israe

Experimental and computational study of zero dimensional metallic behavior at the LaLuO3/SrTiO3 interface

One of the observed and reported phenomena in heterogeneous interfaces of perovskite oxides isthe presence of a two dimensional electron gas (2DEG). In this study, the imperfect interface that isformed between LaLuO3 and SrTiO3 was studied. It was found using x ray diffraction pole figurethat LaLuO3 is deposited on SrTiO3 in a two-domain structure with alternately charged layers parallelto the surface. First-principles calculations reveal that even though the lattices of the two materialsdo not match, an increase of the total potential is found at the interface between the twolattices. Due to this increased potential, electrons are drawn to the interface; since the interface isnot perfectly epitaxial, 2DEG is not formed and instead semicontinuous 0D metallic segmentsprobed by scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy are spread along the interface on theLaLuO3 side. VC 2016 American Vacuum Society.

Role of reactive gas on the structure and properties of titanium nitride films grown by plasma enhanced atomic layer deposition

The authors report on the role of various reactive gases on the structure and properties of TiN thin films prepared by plasma enhanced atomic layer deposition (PEALD) from tetrakis(dimethylamido)titanium. The reactive gas plays an important role determining the film structure and properties. Nitrogen-based plasma (N-2 and NH3) resulted in low oxygen (∼3%) and carbon (∼2%) contamination and well-defined columnar grain structure. A nitrogen excess (∼4%) was found in the films deposited using N2 plasma. The stoichiometric films and lowest resistivity (∼80 μΩ cm) were achieved using NH3 plasma. Deposition using H2 plasma resulted in higher carbon and oxygen contamination (∼6% for each element). The reactive gas also plays an important role in determining the grain size and preferential orientation. By varying the plasma chemistry, either (111) or (100) oriented films can be obtained. A mechanism determining the PEALD TiN preferential orientation is proposed. Finally, plasma induced degradation of the underlying dielectric layer is evaluated.Fil: Krylov, Igor. Technion - Israel Institute of Technology; IsraelFil: Xu, Xianbin. Technion - Israel Institute of Technology; IsraelFil: Zoubenko, Ekaterina. Technion - Israel Institute of Technology; IsraelFil: Weinfeld, Kamira. Technion - Israel Institute of Technology; IsraelFil: Boyeras Baldomá, Santiago. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional; ArgentinaFil: Palumbo, Félix Roberto Mario. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional; ArgentinaFil: Eizenberg, Moshe. Technion - Israel Institute of Technology; IsraelFil: Ritter, Dan. Technion - Israel Institute of Technology; Israe

A review on dielectric breakdown in thin dielectrics: Silicon Dioxide, High-k, and Layered Dielectrics

Thin dielectric films are essential components of most micro- and nanoelectronic devices, and they have played a key role in the huge development that the semiconductor industry has experienced during the last 50 years. Guaranteeing the reliability of thin dielectric films has become more challenging, in light of strong demand from the market for improved performance in electronic devices. The degradation and breakdown of thin dielectrics under normal device operation has an enormous technological importance and thus it is widely investigated in traditional dielectrics (e.g., SiO2, HfO2, and Al2O3), and it should be further investigated in novel dielectric materials that might be used in future devices (e.g., layered dielectrics). Understanding not only the physical phenomena behind dielectric breakdown but also its statistics is crucial to ensure the reliability of modern and future electronic devices, and it can also be cleverly used for other applications, such as the fabrication of new-concept resistive switching devices (e.g., nonvolatile memories and electronic synapses). Here, the fundamentals of the dielectric breakdown phenomenon in traditional and future thin dielectrics are revised. The physical phenomena that trigger the onset, structural damage, breakdown statistics, device reliability, technological implications, and perspectives are described.Fil: Palumbo, Félix Roberto Mario. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional Buenos Aires. Unidad de Investigación y Desarrollo de las Ingenierías; ArgentinaFil: Wen, Chao. Soochow University; ChinaFil: Lombardo, Salvatore. Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche; ItaliaFil: Pazos, Sebastián Matías. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional Buenos Aires. Unidad de Investigación y Desarrollo de las Ingenierías; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Aguirre, Fernando Leonel. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional Buenos Aires. Unidad de Investigación y Desarrollo de las Ingenierías; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Eizenberg, Moshe. Technion - Israel Institute of Technology; IsraelFil: Hui, Fei. Soochow University; China. Technion - Israel Institute of Technology; IsraelFil: Lanza, Mario. Soochow University; Chin