Thickness Scaling and Reliability Comparison for the Inter-Poly High- κ Dielectrics

Author

Chen, Yung-Yu ; Chien, Chao-Hsin

Author_Institution

Lunghwa Univ. of Sci. & Technol., Taoyuan

Volume

28

Issue

8

fYear

2007

Firstpage

700

Lastpage

702

Abstract

In this letter, the inter-poly dielectric (IPD) thickness, scaling, and reliability characteristics of Al₂O₃ and HfO₂ IPDs are studied, which are then compared with conventional oxide/nitride/oxide (ONO) IPD. Regardless of deposition tools, drastic leakage current reduction and reliability improvement have been demonstrated by replacing ONO IPD with high-permittivity (high-kappa) IPDs, which is suitable for mass production applications in the future. Moreover, metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) can be used to further promote dielectric reliability when compared to reactive-sputtering deposition. By using the MOCVD, the charge-to-breakdown (Q_BD) can be significantly improved, in addition to enhanced breakdown voltage and effective breakdown field. Our results clearly demonstrate that high- IPD, particularly deposited by MOCVD, possesses great potential for next-generation stacked-gate Flash memories.

Keywords

MOCVD; aluminium compounds; electric breakdown; flash memories; hafnium compounds; high-k dielectric thin films; leakage currents; permittivity; reliability; Al₂O₃; HfO₂; MOCVD; high-permittivity; inter-poly high-kappa dielectrics; leakage current reduction; mass production; metal-organic chemical vapor deposition; reactive-sputtering deposition; reliability; scaling; stacked-gate flash memories; Aluminum oxide; Capacitance; Chemical technology; Chemical vapor deposition; Dielectric losses; Flash memory; Hafnium oxide; Leakage current; MOCVD; Nonvolatile memory; High-$kappa$ dielectric; inter-poly dielectric (IPD); metal–organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD);

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Device Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0741-3106

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LED.2007.901590

Filename

4278349