Quality Improvement and Electrical Characteristics of High-k Films after Receiving Direct Superimposed with Alternative Current Anodic Oxidation Compensation

• Published in: ECS transactions Vol. 1; no. 5; pp. 465 - 475
• Main Authors: Hwu, Jenn-Gwo, Chang, Chia-Hua, Wang, Tsung-Miau
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 07.07.2006
• ISSN: 1938-5862; 1938-6737
• DOI: 10.1149/1.2209297

A novel, cost-effective compensation method with low thermal budget is proposed to improve the quality of high-k HfO2 films. Anodic oxidation using direct superimposed with alternating current (DAC-ANO) in deionized water was carried out on as-grown high-k films to compensate the defects in the dielectrics. The main contribution of the technique proposed in this work comes from the idea that the reaction between OH- anions and imperfect Hf-O bonds is useful for the improvement of the electrical characteristics. Investigations of leakage current densities, breakdown fields, interface states, and constant dielectric field reliability, demonstrate that the devices that receive anodic oxidation compensation exhibit better characteristics than ones that do not. The anodic compensation technique is a novel, cost-effective and promising process to improve the characteristics of high-k gate dielectrics.