ABSTRACTWe have investigated physical and electrical properties of Al2O3, HfO2, and their alloy films deposited on 300mm Si wafers by Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD). It is found that Al2O3 films are not crystallized even after the heat treatment of 1050°C, while HfO2 films are already crystallized even after a-Si deposition (530°C). The crystallization temperature can be higher by adding Al2O3 to HfO2. It is confirmed by in-plane XRD and plane views of TEM that HfAlOx films with lower Hf content (Hf/(Hf+Al) <30%) are amorphous without phase separation after annealing at 1050°C and 5sec. The dependences of equivalent oxide thicknesses (EOT) on the physical thicknesses of Al2O3, HfAlOx (Hf/(Hf+Al)∼22%), and HfO2 films in poly-silicon gate capacitors indicate that those dielectric constants k are ∼9, 14, and 23, respectively. The gate dielectric with EOT of 1.5nm and the leakage current density Jg of 3mA/cm2 can be fabricated with 2nm-thick HfAlOx (22%) film.
Noble Metal Alloy Thin Films by Atomic Layer Deposition & Rapid Joule Heating