Detection of Electron Trap Generation due to Constant Voltage Stress on High-κ Gate Stacks

Author

Young, C.D. ; Nadkarni, S. ; Heh, D. ; Harris, H.R. ; Choi, R. ; Peterson, J.J. ; Sim, J.H. ; Krishnan, S.A. ; Barnett, J. ; Vogel, E. ; Lee, B.H. ; Zeitzoff, P. ; Brown, G.A. ; Bersuker, G.

Author_Institution

SEMATECH, Austin, TX

fYear

2006

fDate

26-30 March 2006

Firstpage

169

Lastpage

173

Abstract

Positive constant voltage stress combined with charge pumping (CP) measurements was applied to study trap generation phenomena in SiO₂/HfO₂/TiN stacks. Using the analysis for frequency-dependent CP data developed to address depth profiling of the electron traps, we have determined that the voltage stress-induced generation of the defects contributing to threshold voltage instability in high-k gate stacks occurs primarily within the interfacial SiO₂ layer (IL) on the as-grown "precursor" defects most likely caused by the overlaying HfO₂ layer. These results point to the IL as a major focus for reliability improvement of high-k stacks

Keywords

electron traps; hafnium compounds; high-k dielectric thin films; interface states; semiconductor device breakdown; semiconductor device reliability; silicon compounds; stress effects; titanium compounds; SiO₂-HfO₂-TiN; charge pumping measurements; electron trap generation; high-k gate stacks reliability; interfacial layer; positive constant voltage stress; threshold voltage instability; Charge measurement; Charge pumps; Current measurement; Electron traps; Hafnium oxide; High K dielectric materials; High-K gate dielectrics; Stress measurement; Threshold voltage; Tin; charge pumping; high-κ; trap generation; trapped charge;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Reliability Physics Symposium Proceedings, 2006. 44th Annual., IEEE International

Conference_Location

San Jose, CA

Print_ISBN

0-7803-9498-4

Electronic_ISBN

0-7803-9499-2

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/RELPHY.2006.251211

Filename

4017152