Relationships among equivalent oxide thickness, nanochemistry, and nanostructure in atomic layer chemical-vapor-deposited Hf-O films on Si

The relationships among the equivalent oxide thickness (EOT), nanochemistry, and nanostructure of atomic layer chemical-vapor-deposited (ALCVD) Hf-O-based films, with oxide and nitrided oxide interlayers on Si substrates, were studied using x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) in annular dark-field imaging (ADF), and parallel electron energy-loss spectroscopy (PEELS), capacitance-voltage, and leakage-current-voltage measurements. The XPS (Hf 4f binding energy shift) studies indicated the formation of Hf-O-Si bonds in as-deposited amorphous films, the amount of which was influenced by the interlayer composition and annealing conditions. After post-deposition annealing in N-2 and O-2, the Hf-O layers were nanocrystalline. Although HRTEM images showed a structurally sharp interface between the Hf-O layer and the interlayer, angle-resolved XPS, ADF imaging, and PEELS in the STEM revealed a chemically diffused HfSiOx region in between. This interdiffusion was observed by the detection of Si (using Si L edge) and Hf (using Hf O-2,O-3 edge) in the Hf-O layer and the interlayer. For an annealed Hf-O/interlayer stack, with an ALCVD target thickness of 4.0 nm for the Hf-O layer on 1.2 nm of nitrided chemical oxide, the experimentally measured EOT and leakage current (at -1 V) were 1.52 nm and similar to10(-8) A/cm(2). A three-layer (1.2 nm interlayer of nitrided chemical oxide/compositionally graded, 2 nm region of HfSiOx/2 nm HfO2 layer) capacitor model was used to determine the respective contributions to the measured EOT, and the dielectric permittivity of the interlayer was found to be 6.06. These studies clearly indicate that a total EOT of 1 nm and below is attainable in the Hf-N-O-Si/Si-N-O system. (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics.