S-Passivation of the Ge Gate Stack Using (NH4)2S

The last decennia, a lot of effort has been made to introduce new channel materials in a Si process flow. High mobility materials such as Ge need a good gate stack passivation in order to ensure optimal MOSFET operation. Several routes for passivating the Ge gate stack have been explored in the last years. We present here the S-passivation of the Ge gate stack: (NH4)2S is used to create a S-terminated Ge surface. In this paper the S-treatment is discussed. The S-terminated Ge surface is not chemically passive but can still react with air. After gate oxide deposition, the Ge-S bonds are preserved and an adequate passivation is found for pMOS operation.