A new method is proposed to extract the energy distribution of negative charges, which results from electron trapping by traps in the gate stack of n MOSFET during positive bias temperature instability（PBTI） stress ...A new method is proposed to extract the energy distribution of negative charges, which results from electron trapping by traps in the gate stack of n MOSFET during positive bias temperature instability（PBTI） stress based on the recovery measurement. In our case, the extracted energy distribution of negative charges shows an obvious dependence on energy,and the energy level of the largest energy density of negative charges is 0.01 eV above the conduction band of silicon. The charge energy distribution below that energy level shows strong dependence on the stress voltage.展开更多
The optimizations to metal gate structure and film process were extensively investigated for great metalgate stress（MGS） in 20 nm high-k/metal-gate-last（HKVMG-last） nMOS devices.The characteristics of advanced MGS...The optimizations to metal gate structure and film process were extensively investigated for great metalgate stress（MGS） in 20 nm high-k/metal-gate-last（HKVMG-last） nMOS devices.The characteristics of advanced MGS technologies on device performances were studied through a process and device simulation by TCAD tools. The metal gate electrode with different stress values（0 to—6 GPa） was implemented in the device simulation along with other traditional process-induced-strain（PIS） technologies like e-SiC and nitride capping layer.The MGS demonstrated a great enhancing effect on channel carriers transporting in the device as device pitch scaling down.In addition,the novel structure for a tilted gate electrode was proposed and relationships between the tilt angle and channel stress were investigated.Also with a new method of fully stressed replacement metal gate（FSRMG） and using plane-shape-HfO to substitute U-shape-HfO,the effect of MGS was improved.For greater film stress in the metal gate,the process conditions for physical vapor deposition（PVD） TiN-x- were optimized.The maximum compressive stress of—6.5 GPa TiN_x was achieved with thinner film and greater RF power as well as about 6 sccm N ratio.展开更多
A multi-deposition multi-annealing technique （MDMA） is introduced into the process of high-k/metal gate MOSFET for the gate last process to effectively reduce the gate leakage and improve the device＇s performance. ...A multi-deposition multi-annealing technique （MDMA） is introduced into the process of high-k/metal gate MOSFET for the gate last process to effectively reduce the gate leakage and improve the device＇s performance. In this paper, we systematically investigate the electrical parameters and the time-dependent dielectric breakdown （TDDB） characteristics of positive channel metal oxide semiconductor （PMOS） under different MDMA process conditions, including the depo- sition/annealing （D＆A） cycles, the D＆A time, and the total annealing time. The results show that the increases of the number of D＆A cycles （from 1 to 2） and D＆A time （from 15 s to 30 s） can contribute to the results that the gate leakage current decreases by about one order of magnitude and that the time to fail （TTF） at 63.2% increases by about several times. However, too many D＆A cycles （such as 4 cycles） make the equivalent oxide thickness （EOT） increase by about 1A and the TTF of PMOS worsen. Moreover, different D＆A times and numbers of D＆A cycles induce different breakdown mechanisms.展开更多
The time zero dielectric breakdown characteristics of MOSCAP with ultra-thin EOT high-k metal gate stacks are studied. The TZDB results show an abnormal area dependence due to the series resistance effect. The series ...The time zero dielectric breakdown characteristics of MOSCAP with ultra-thin EOT high-k metal gate stacks are studied. The TZDB results show an abnormal area dependence due to the series resistance effect. The series resistance components extracted from the Fowler-Nordheim tunneling relation are attributed to the spreading resistance due to the asymmetry electrodes. Based on a series model to eliminate the series resistance effect, an area acceleration dependence is obtained by correcting the TZDB results. The area dependence follows Poisson area scaling rules, which indicates that the mechanism of TZDB is the same as TDDB and could be considered as a trap generation process.展开更多
In the process of high-k films fabrication, a novel multi deposition multi annealing （MDMA） technique is introduced to replace simple post deposition annealing. The leakage current decreases with the increase of the...In the process of high-k films fabrication, a novel multi deposition multi annealing （MDMA） technique is introduced to replace simple post deposition annealing. The leakage current decreases with the increase of the post deposition annealing （PDA） times. The equivalent oxide thickness （EOT） decreases when the annealing time（s） change from 1 to 2. Furthermore, the characteristics of SILC （stress-induced leakage current） for an ultra-thin SiO2/HfO2 gate dielectric stack are studied systematically. The increase of the PDA time（s） from 1 to 2 can decrease the defect and defect generation rate in the HK layer. However, increasing the PDA times to 4 and 7 may introduce too much oxygen, therefore the type of oxygen vacancy changes.展开更多
In this paper, we report the fabrication, electrical and physical characteristics of TiN/HfO2/Si MOS capacitors with erbium （Er） ion implantation. It is demonstrated that the fiat band voltage can be reduced by 0.4 ...In this paper, we report the fabrication, electrical and physical characteristics of TiN/HfO2/Si MOS capacitors with erbium （Er） ion implantation. It is demonstrated that the fiat band voltage can be reduced by 0.4 V due to the formation of Er oxide. Moreover, it is observed that the equivalent oxide thickness is thinned down by 0.5 nm because the thickness of interfacial layer is significantly reduced, which is thought to be attributed to the strong binding capability of the implanted Er atoms with oxygen atoms. In addition, cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy experiment shows that the HfO2 layer with Er ion implantation is still amorphous after annealing at a high temperature. This Er ion implantation technique has the potential to be implemented as a band edge metal gate solution for NMOS without a capping layer, and may also satisfy the demand of the EOT reduction in 32 nm technology node.展开更多
The key technologies for the dual high-k and dual metal gate, such as the electrical optimization of metal insert poly-Si stack structure, the separating of high-k and metal gate of n/pMOS in different regions of the ...The key technologies for the dual high-k and dual metal gate, such as the electrical optimization of metal insert poly-Si stack structure, the separating of high-k and metal gate of n/pMOS in different regions of the wafer, and the synchronous etching of n/pMOS gate stack, are successfully developed. First, reasonable flat-band voltage and equivalent oxide thickness of pMOS MIPS structure are obtained by further optimizing the HfSiAlON dielectric through incorporating more Al-O dipole at interface between HfSiAlON and bottom SiOx. Then, the separating of high-k and metal gate for n/pMOS is achieved by SC1（NH4OH：H2O2：H2O = 1 ： 1 ： 5） and DHF-based solution for the selective removing of n MOS TaN and Hf Si ON and by BCl3-based plasma and DHF-based solution for the selective removing of pMOS TaN/Mo and HfSiAlON.After that, the synchronous etching of n/pMOS gate stack is developed by utilizing optimized BCl3/SF6/O2/Ar plasma to obtain a vertical profile for TaN and TaN/Mo and by utilizing BCl3/Ar plasma combined with DHF-based solution to achieve high selectivity to Si substrate. Finally, good electrical characteristics of CMOS devices, obtained by utilizing these new developed technologies, further confirm that they are practicable technologies for DHDMG integration.展开更多
The thickness effect of the TiN capping layer on the time dependent dielectric breakdown（TDDB） characteristic of ultra-thin EOT high-k metal gate NMOSFET is investigated in this paper.Based on experimental results,i...The thickness effect of the TiN capping layer on the time dependent dielectric breakdown（TDDB） characteristic of ultra-thin EOT high-k metal gate NMOSFET is investigated in this paper.Based on experimental results,it is found that the device with a thicker TiN layer has a more promising reliability characteristic than that with a thinner TiN layer.From the charge pumping measurement and secondary ion mass spectroscopy（SIMS） analysis,it is indicated that the sample with the thicker TiN layer introduces more Cl passivation at the IL/Si interface and exhibits a lower interface trap density.In addition,the influences of interface and bulk trap density ratio Nit/Not are studied by TDDB simulations through combining percolation theory and the kinetic Monte Carlo（kMC） method.The lifetime reduction and Weibull slope lowering are explained by interface trap effects for TiN capping layers with different thicknesses.展开更多
High-k metal gate stacks are being used to suppress the gate leakage due to tunneling for sub-45 nm technology nodes.The reliability of thin dielectric films becomes a limitation to device manufacturing,especially to ...High-k metal gate stacks are being used to suppress the gate leakage due to tunneling for sub-45 nm technology nodes.The reliability of thin dielectric films becomes a limitation to device manufacturing,especially to the breakdown characteristic.In this work,a breakdown simulator based on a percolation model and the kinetic Monte Carlo method is set up,and the intrinsic relation between time to breakdown and trap generation rate R is studied by TDDB simulation.It is found that all degradation factors,such as trap generation rate time exponent m,Weibull slope β and percolation factor s,each could be expressed as a function of trap density time exponent α.Based on the percolation relation and power law lifetime projection,a temperature related trap generation model is proposed.The validity of this model is confirmed by comparing with experiment results.For other device and material conditions,the percolation relation provides a new way to study the relationship between trap generation and lifetime projection.展开更多
The replacement metal gate（RMG） defectivity performance control is very challenging in high-k metal gate（HKMG） chemical mechanical polishing（CMP）. In this study, three major defect types, including fall-on parti...The replacement metal gate（RMG） defectivity performance control is very challenging in high-k metal gate（HKMG） chemical mechanical polishing（CMP）. In this study, three major defect types, including fall-on particles, micro-scratch and corrosion have been investigated. The research studied the effects of polishing pad,pressure, rotating speed, flow rate and post-CMP cleaning on the three kinds of defect, which finally eliminated the defects and achieved good surface morphology. This study will provide an important reference value for the future research of aluminum metal gate CMP.展开更多
Positive bias temperature instability（PBTI） characteristics and degradation mechanisms of NMOSFET with high-k/metal gate last process have been systematically investigated. The time evolution of threshold voltage sh...Positive bias temperature instability（PBTI） characteristics and degradation mechanisms of NMOSFET with high-k/metal gate last process have been systematically investigated. The time evolution of threshold voltage shift during PBTI stress still follows a power law. However, the exponent n decreases from 0.26 to 0.16 linearly as the gate stress voltage increases from 0.6 to 1.2 V. There is no interface state generation during stress because of the negligible sub-threshold swing change. Moreover, the activation energy is 0.1 e V, which implies that electrons directly tunnel into high-k bulk and are trapped by pre-existing traps resulting into PBTI degradation. During recovery the threshold voltage shift is linear in lgt, and a mathematical model is proposed to express threshold voltage shift.展开更多
基金Project supported by the National Science&Technology Major Projects of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China(Grant No.2009ZX02035)the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant Nos.61176091 and 61306129)
文摘A new method is proposed to extract the energy distribution of negative charges, which results from electron trapping by traps in the gate stack of n MOSFET during positive bias temperature instability（PBTI） stress based on the recovery measurement. In our case, the extracted energy distribution of negative charges shows an obvious dependence on energy,and the energy level of the largest energy density of negative charges is 0.01 eV above the conduction band of silicon. The charge energy distribution below that energy level shows strong dependence on the stress voltage.
基金supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China(No.2009ZX02035)
文摘The optimizations to metal gate structure and film process were extensively investigated for great metalgate stress（MGS） in 20 nm high-k/metal-gate-last（HKVMG-last） nMOS devices.The characteristics of advanced MGS technologies on device performances were studied through a process and device simulation by TCAD tools. The metal gate electrode with different stress values（0 to—6 GPa） was implemented in the device simulation along with other traditional process-induced-strain（PIS） technologies like e-SiC and nitride capping layer.The MGS demonstrated a great enhancing effect on channel carriers transporting in the device as device pitch scaling down.In addition,the novel structure for a tilted gate electrode was proposed and relationships between the tilt angle and channel stress were investigated.Also with a new method of fully stressed replacement metal gate（FSRMG） and using plane-shape-HfO to substitute U-shape-HfO,the effect of MGS was improved.For greater film stress in the metal gate,the process conditions for physical vapor deposition（PVD） TiN-x- were optimized.The maximum compressive stress of—6.5 GPa TiN_x was achieved with thinner film and greater RF power as well as about 6 sccm N ratio.
基金supported by the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China(Grant No.SS2015AA010601)the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant Nos.61176091 and 61306129)
文摘A multi-deposition multi-annealing technique （MDMA） is introduced into the process of high-k/metal gate MOSFET for the gate last process to effectively reduce the gate leakage and improve the device＇s performance. In this paper, we systematically investigate the electrical parameters and the time-dependent dielectric breakdown （TDDB） characteristics of positive channel metal oxide semiconductor （PMOS） under different MDMA process conditions, including the depo- sition/annealing （D＆A） cycles, the D＆A time, and the total annealing time. The results show that the increases of the number of D＆A cycles （from 1 to 2） and D＆A time （from 15 s to 30 s） can contribute to the results that the gate leakage current decreases by about one order of magnitude and that the time to fail （TTF） at 63.2% increases by about several times. However, too many D＆A cycles （such as 4 cycles） make the equivalent oxide thickness （EOT） increase by about 1A and the TTF of PMOS worsen. Moreover, different D＆A times and numbers of D＆A cycles induce different breakdown mechanisms.
基金Project supported by the National High Technology Research and Development Program(863 Program)of China(No.SS2015AA010601)the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Nos.61176091+1 种基金61306129)the Opening Project of the Key Laboratory of Microelectronics Devices&Integrated Technology,Institute of Microelectronics,Chinese Academy of Sciences
文摘The time zero dielectric breakdown characteristics of MOSCAP with ultra-thin EOT high-k metal gate stacks are studied. The TZDB results show an abnormal area dependence due to the series resistance effect. The series resistance components extracted from the Fowler-Nordheim tunneling relation are attributed to the spreading resistance due to the asymmetry electrodes. Based on a series model to eliminate the series resistance effect, an area acceleration dependence is obtained by correcting the TZDB results. The area dependence follows Poisson area scaling rules, which indicates that the mechanism of TZDB is the same as TDDB and could be considered as a trap generation process.
基金supported by the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China(Grant No.2015AA016501)the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant No.61306129)
文摘In the process of high-k films fabrication, a novel multi deposition multi annealing （MDMA） technique is introduced to replace simple post deposition annealing. The leakage current decreases with the increase of the post deposition annealing （PDA） times. The equivalent oxide thickness （EOT） decreases when the annealing time（s） change from 1 to 2. Furthermore, the characteristics of SILC （stress-induced leakage current） for an ultra-thin SiO2/HfO2 gate dielectric stack are studied systematically. The increase of the PDA time（s） from 1 to 2 can decrease the defect and defect generation rate in the HK layer. However, increasing the PDA times to 4 and 7 may introduce too much oxygen, therefore the type of oxygen vacancy changes.
基金supported by the State Key Development Program for Basic Research of China(Grant No. 2011CBA00602)the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant Nos. 60876076 and 60976013)
文摘In this paper, we report the fabrication, electrical and physical characteristics of TiN/HfO2/Si MOS capacitors with erbium （Er） ion implantation. It is demonstrated that the fiat band voltage can be reduced by 0.4 V due to the formation of Er oxide. Moreover, it is observed that the equivalent oxide thickness is thinned down by 0.5 nm because the thickness of interfacial layer is significantly reduced, which is thought to be attributed to the strong binding capability of the implanted Er atoms with oxygen atoms. In addition, cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy experiment shows that the HfO2 layer with Er ion implantation is still amorphous after annealing at a high temperature. This Er ion implantation technique has the potential to be implemented as a band edge metal gate solution for NMOS without a capping layer, and may also satisfy the demand of the EOT reduction in 32 nm technology node.
基金Project supported by the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China(Grant No.2015AA010601)
文摘The key technologies for the dual high-k and dual metal gate, such as the electrical optimization of metal insert poly-Si stack structure, the separating of high-k and metal gate of n/pMOS in different regions of the wafer, and the synchronous etching of n/pMOS gate stack, are successfully developed. First, reasonable flat-band voltage and equivalent oxide thickness of pMOS MIPS structure are obtained by further optimizing the HfSiAlON dielectric through incorporating more Al-O dipole at interface between HfSiAlON and bottom SiOx. Then, the separating of high-k and metal gate for n/pMOS is achieved by SC1（NH4OH：H2O2：H2O = 1 ： 1 ： 5） and DHF-based solution for the selective removing of n MOS TaN and Hf Si ON and by BCl3-based plasma and DHF-based solution for the selective removing of pMOS TaN/Mo and HfSiAlON.After that, the synchronous etching of n/pMOS gate stack is developed by utilizing optimized BCl3/SF6/O2/Ar plasma to obtain a vertical profile for TaN and TaN/Mo and by utilizing BCl3/Ar plasma combined with DHF-based solution to achieve high selectivity to Si substrate. Finally, good electrical characteristics of CMOS devices, obtained by utilizing these new developed technologies, further confirm that they are practicable technologies for DHDMG integration.
基金supported by the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China(Grant No.SS2015AA010601)the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant Nos.61176091 and 61306129)the Opening Project of Key Laboratory of Microelectronics Devices&Integrated Technology,Institute of Micro Electronics of Chinese Academy of Sciences
文摘The thickness effect of the TiN capping layer on the time dependent dielectric breakdown（TDDB） characteristic of ultra-thin EOT high-k metal gate NMOSFET is investigated in this paper.Based on experimental results,it is found that the device with a thicker TiN layer has a more promising reliability characteristic than that with a thinner TiN layer.From the charge pumping measurement and secondary ion mass spectroscopy（SIMS） analysis,it is indicated that the sample with the thicker TiN layer introduces more Cl passivation at the IL/Si interface and exhibits a lower interface trap density.In addition,the influences of interface and bulk trap density ratio Nit/Not are studied by TDDB simulations through combining percolation theory and the kinetic Monte Carlo（kMC） method.The lifetime reduction and Weibull slope lowering are explained by interface trap effects for TiN capping layers with different thicknesses.
基金supported by the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China(Grant No.SS2015AA010601)the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant Nos.61176091 and 61306129)the Opening Project of Key Laboratory of Microelectronics Devices&Integrated Technology,Institute of Micro Electronics of Chinese Academy of Sciences
文摘High-k metal gate stacks are being used to suppress the gate leakage due to tunneling for sub-45 nm technology nodes.The reliability of thin dielectric films becomes a limitation to device manufacturing,especially to the breakdown characteristic.In this work,a breakdown simulator based on a percolation model and the kinetic Monte Carlo method is set up,and the intrinsic relation between time to breakdown and trap generation rate R is studied by TDDB simulation.It is found that all degradation factors,such as trap generation rate time exponent m,Weibull slope β and percolation factor s,each could be expressed as a function of trap density time exponent α.Based on the percolation relation and power law lifetime projection,a temperature related trap generation model is proposed.The validity of this model is confirmed by comparing with experiment results.For other device and material conditions,the percolation relation provides a new way to study the relationship between trap generation and lifetime projection.
基金Project supported by the Major National Science and Technology Special Projects(No.2009ZX02308)the Natural Science Foundation for the Youth of Hebei Province(Nos.F2012202094,F2015202267)the Outstanding Youth Science and Technology Innovation Fund of Hebei University of Technology(No.2013010)
文摘The replacement metal gate（RMG） defectivity performance control is very challenging in high-k metal gate（HKMG） chemical mechanical polishing（CMP）. In this study, three major defect types, including fall-on particles, micro-scratch and corrosion have been investigated. The research studied the effects of polishing pad,pressure, rotating speed, flow rate and post-CMP cleaning on the three kinds of defect, which finally eliminated the defects and achieved good surface morphology. This study will provide an important reference value for the future research of aluminum metal gate CMP.
基金Project supported by the Important National Science&Technology Specific Projects(No.2009ZX02035)the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Nos.61176091,61306129)
文摘Positive bias temperature instability（PBTI） characteristics and degradation mechanisms of NMOSFET with high-k/metal gate last process have been systematically investigated. The time evolution of threshold voltage shift during PBTI stress still follows a power law. However, the exponent n decreases from 0.26 to 0.16 linearly as the gate stress voltage increases from 0.6 to 1.2 V. There is no interface state generation during stress because of the negligible sub-threshold swing change. Moreover, the activation energy is 0.1 e V, which implies that electrons directly tunnel into high-k bulk and are trapped by pre-existing traps resulting into PBTI degradation. During recovery the threshold voltage shift is linear in lgt, and a mathematical model is proposed to express threshold voltage shift.
