Transient Charging and Relaxation in High-k Gate Dielectrics and Their Implications

Abstract

Recent results on device instability indicate that the methodologies developed for electrical characterization of metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) devices with SiO2 gate dielectric may not be sufficiently accurate for high-k devices. While the physical origin of the instabilities in high-k devices is yet to be identified, it is found that many of the abnormal electrical characteristics of high-k devices can be explained by assuming fast and slow transient chargings in high-k dielectric. In this paper, transient charging effects in high-k gate dielectrics are reviewed and their implications on test methodologies are discussed.