Effects of Ir electrodes on barium strontium titanate thin-film capacitors for high-density memory application

Excellent electrical characteristics of RF-sputtered Barium Strontium Titanate (BST) thin-film capacitors with iridium (Ir) electrodes were obtained and the influence of Ir on device properties was investigated. In contrast to conventional Pt-electroded system, BST capacitors with Ir electrodes exhibit higher polarization and slightly higher leakage current. The stronger crystallinity of a thin BST layer (~70 Å) initially grown on Ir substrate is believed to be the cause for higher charge storage density of the Ir-electroded capacitors. However, this higher polarization is accompanied by higher dielectric dispersion (3.12% per decade for Ir versus 1.98% for Pt electrodes). On the other hand, leakage current appears to be dominated by the Schottky barrier formed by Ir-BST and Pt-BST contacts, respectively, at high field. The analysis from temperature-dependent J-V data indicates a lower barrier height for the Ir-BST contact than Pt-BST contact. The slightly higher leakage current density of the BST capacitors with Ir electrodes can thus be attributed to the lower barrier height