Electrical property improvements of high-k gate oxide by <i>in situ</i> nitrogen incorporation during atomic layer deposition

Abstract

Atomic layer deposition (ALD) process for oxynitrides of high-k gate dielectrics employing NH4OH as a single source for reactants, water and NH3, was studied. By this method, nitrogen was incorporated up to 1–3at.% for ALD Al2O3 and Ta2O5 films from metal organic precursors. A comparative study with water based ALD showed that the electrical properties were improved. The leakage current of oxide films from NH4OH based ALD had been reduced and, more importantly, the dielectric strength was found to be enhanced by more than two orders of magnitude from a time dependent dielectric breakdown measurement.