Electrical Characterization of Metal–Insulator–MetalCapacitors with Atomic-Layer-Deposited HfO2 Dielectrics forRadio Frequency Integrated Circuit Application

Abstract

Metal–insulator–metal (MIM) capacitors with atomic-layer-depositedHfO2 dielectric and TaN electrodes are investigated for rfintegrated circuit applications. For 12 nm HfO2, thefabricated capacitor exhibits a high capacitancedensity of 15.5 fF/μm2at 100 kHz, a small leakage current density of6.4×10−9 A/cm2 at 1.8 V and 125°C, a breakdown electricfield of 2.6 MV/cm as well as voltage coefficients of capacitance(VCCs) of 2110 ppm/V2 and -824 ppm/V at 100 kHz. Further, itis deduced that the conduction mechanism in the high field rangeis dominated by the Poole–Frenkel emission, and the conductionmechanism in the low field range is possibly related totrap-assisted tunnelling. Finally, comparison of various HfO2MIM capacitors is present, suggesting that the present MIMcapacitor is a promising candidate for future rf integratedcircuit application.