The Application of an Ultrathin ALD HfSiON Cap Layer on SiON Dielectrics for Ni-FUSI CMOS Technology Targeting at Low-Power Applications

Author

Chang, S.Z. ; Yu, H.Y. ; Veloso, A. ; Lauwers, A. ; Delabie, A. ; Everaert, J.-L. ; Kerner, C. ; Absil, P. ; Hoffmann, T. ; Biesemans, S.

Author_Institution

Interuniversity Microelectron. Center, Leuven

Volume

28

Issue

7

fYear

2007

fDate

7/1/2007 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

634

Lastpage

636

Abstract

In this letter, we report that the application of a thin HfSiON cap layer (2-10 cycles via atomic layer deposition) on SiON host dielectrics in phase-controlled Ni-fully-silicide (FUSI) CMOS technology is effective to modulate the device V_t and reduce the gate leakage while maintaining a similar gate capacitance equivalent thickness and a long channel device mobility (at an E_eff of 0.8 MV/cm). High-V_t ring oscillator with a delay of 17 ps has been demonstrated, with a much-reduced static power (~10 times) as compared to the Ni-FUSI device using the pure SiON dielectrics. It is proposed that the phase-controlled Ni-FUSI technology using the SiON dielectrics capped with thin HfSiON is promising for the 45-nm and beyond low-power CMOS applications.

Keywords

CMOS integrated circuits; atomic layer deposition; hafnium compounds; high-k dielectric thin films; low-power electronics; silicon compounds; FUSI CMOS technology; HfSiON; Ni-FUSI device; atomic layer deposition; dielectric material; fully-silicide CMOS technology; gate capacitance; gate leakage; low-power applications; ring oscillator; size 45 nm; ultrathin ALD cap layer; Atomic layer deposition; CMOS technology; Delay; Dielectric devices; Electrodes; Gate leakage; Microelectronics; Phase modulation; Presence network agents; Ring oscillators; $hbox{HfSiO}_{x}$ cap layer; Ni-fully-silicide (FUSI); SiON; low-power CMOS; ring oscillator (RO);

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Device Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0741-3106

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LED.2007.899331

Filename

4252189