Low-temperature growth of HfO2 dielectric layers by Plasma-Enhanced CVD
ABSTRACTHfO2 dielectric layers have been grown on p -type Si(100) by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PE-CVD), using Ar-O2 plasmas and hafnium(IV) tetra-t -butoxide as precursors. In-situ control of the plasma phase is carried out by optical emission spectroscopy (OES) and quadrupolar mass spectrometry (QMS).Structural and optical properties of the HfO2 layers and of the HfO2/Si interface are investigated by spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE) in the photon energy range 1.5–6.0 eV‥ SE data are corroborated by results obtained from glancing incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS).The effect of the substrate temperature (RT-250°C) and precursor flow on the thickness of interfacial SiO2 layer and on the HfO2 microstructure is investigated. The growth dynamics of HfO2 film and SiO2 interface layer is also discussed.