PVD HfO₂ for high-precision MIM capacitor applications

Abstract

Metal-insulator-metal (MIM) capacitors are fabricated using sputtered HfO <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> with Ta and TaN for top and bottom electrodes, respectively. High-capacitance densities from 4.7 to 8.1 fF/μm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> have been achieved while maintaining the leakage current densities around 1 × 10/sup -8/ A/cm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> within the normal circuit bias conditions. A guideline for the insulator thickness and its dielectric constant has been obtained by analyzing the tradeoff between the linearity coefficient and the capacitance density.