Improved Interfacial Properties of Ge MOS Capacitor With High-k Dielectric by Using TaON/GeON Dual Interlayer

Abstract

Ge MOS capacitors with tri-layer gate dielectric are proposed by using GeON interlayer, TaON sandwich layer, and HfTiON high-k dielectric. Very small capacitance equivalent thickness (0.79~0.91 nm) is achieved. Experimental results show that the NO pretreated sample exhibits the best electrical properties, such as low interface-state density (5.4 × 10 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">11</sup> cm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">-2</sup> eV <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">-1</sup> ), low gate leakage current density (~ 3.16 × 10 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">-4</sup> Acm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">-2</sup> at V <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">g</sub> - V <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">fb</sub> = 1 V) and high device reliability. All of these should be attributed to the facts that the NO nitridation could form a GeON interlayer with suitable N content and thus provide an excellent GeON/Ge interface with strong Ge-N bonds, while the TaON sandwich layer could separate Hf and Ge, thus effectively preventing the reaction between them and improving the interface quality and electrical properties of the devices.