Impact of plasma treatment on electrical properties of TiO₂/RuO₂based DRAM capacitor

Abstract

In this work, we systematically studied the influence of the plasma treatment (PT) on the structural and electrical properties of Pt/rutile-TiO2/RuO2 metal–insulator–metal capacitors. The leakage current of the 12 nm thick TiO2 dielectrics prepared by atomic layer deposition was reduced below 10−7 A cm−2 while the capacitance equivalent thickness was kept below 0.5 nm using oxygen PT of the bottom RuO2 electrode. Reflection high energy electron diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analyses allowed the conclusion that O2 plasma smoothened the RuO2 surface and increased its oxygen content through plasma induced surface reconstruction. The nucleation of TiO2 on the plasma-treated surface was faster while the thickness of the capacitor dead layer at the TiO2/RuO2 interface was reduced.