Angus I. Kingon

Alternative dielectrics to silicon dioxide for memory and logic devices.

The silicon-based microelectronics industry is rapidly approaching a point where device fabrication can no longer be simply scaled to progressively smaller sizes. Technological decisions must now be made that will substantially alter the directions along which silicon devices continue to develop. One such challenge is the need for higher permittivity dielectrics to replace silicon dioxide, the properties of which have hitherto been instrumental to the industrys success. Considerable efforts have already been made to develop replacement dielectrics for dynamic random-access memories. These developments serve to illustrate the magnitude of the now urgent problem of identifying alternatives to silicon dioxide for the gate dielectric in logic devices, such as the ubiquitous field-effect transistor.

Ferroelectricity in thin films: The dielectric response of fiber-textured (BaxSr1−x)Ti1+yO3+z thin films grown by chemical vapor deposition

We have investigated the dielectric response of a series of {100} fiber-textured (BaxSr1−x)Ti1+yO3+z samples deposited by liquid-source metalorganic chemical vapor deposition onto Pt/SiO2/Si, as a function of the two most commonly varied microstructural parameters: film thickness and Ti nonstoichiometry y. We find that the overall behavior of these samples is adequately described by mean-field, Landau–Ginzburg–Devonshire theory as for bulk ferroelectrics. However, we quantify the impact of three separable factors for these films that greatly alter the dielectric susceptibility as a function of temperature, compared to that found for bulk ceramic samples at the same Ba/Sr ratio of 70/30: (i) Ti nonstoichiometry; (ii) the apparent interface effect; and (iii) the plane equibiaxial stress state resulting from thermal expansion mismatch strains. When these factors are properly taken into consideration, we show that these fine grained thin films behave in a manner entirely consistent with expectations based on ...

An electronically tunable microstrip bandpass filter using thin-film Barium-Strontium-Titanate (BST) varactors

A tunable third-order combline bandpass filter using thin-film barium-strontium-titanate varactors and fabricated on a sapphire substrate is reported. Application of 0-200-V bias varied the center frequency of the filter from 2.44 to 2.88 GHz (16% tuning) while achieving a 1-dB bandwidth of 400 MHz. The insertion loss varied from 5.1 dB at zero bias to 3.3 dB at full bias, while the return loss exceeded 13 dB over the range. The third-order intercept of the filter was found to be 41 dBm.

Voltage-controlled RF filters employing thin-film barium-strontium-titanate tunable capacitors

Tunable lowpass and bandpass lumped-element filters employing barium-strontium-titanate (BST)-based capacitors are presented. A new metallization technique is used, which improves the quality factor of the tunable BST capacitors by a factor of two. The lowpass filter has an insertion loss of 2 dB and a tunability of 40% (120-170 MHz) with the application of 0-9 V DC bias. The bandpass filter (BPF) has an insertion loss of 3 dB and a tunability of 57% (176-276 MHz) with the application of 0-6 V DC. The third-order intercept point of the BPF was measured to be 19 dBm with the application of two tones around 170 MHz.

Piezoelectric measurements with atomic force microscopy

An atomic force microscope (AFM) is used to measure the magnitude of the effective longitudinal piezoelectric constant (d33) of thin films. Measurements are performed with a conducting diamond AFM tip in contact with a top electrode. The interaction between the tip and electric field present is a potentially large source of error that is eliminated through the use of this configuration and the conducting diamond tips. Measurements yielded reasonable piezoelectric constants of X-cut single-crystal quartz, thin film ZnO, and nonpiezoelectric SiO2 thin films.

Tunable barium strontium titanate thin film capacitors for RF and microwave applications

The measurement results for thin film barium strontium titanate (BST) based voltage tunable capacitors intended for RF applications are reported. At 9 V DC, BST capacitors fabricated using MOCVD (metalorganic chemical vapor deposition) method achieved 71% (3.4:1) tunability. The measured device quality factor (Q) for BST varactors is comparable with the device Q for commercially available varactor diodes of similar capacitance. The typical dielectric loss tangent was in the range 0.003-0.009 at VHF. Large signal measurement and modeling results for BST thin film capacitors are also presented.

Direct studies of domain switching dynamics in thin film ferroelectric capacitors

An experimental approach for direct studies of the polarization reversal mechanism in thin film ferroelectric capacitors based on piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM) in conjunction with pulse switching capabilities is presented. Instant domain configurations developing in a 3×3μm2 capacitor at different stages of the polarization reversal process have been registered using step-by-step switching and subsequent PFM imaging. The developed approach allows direct comparison of experimentally measured microscopic switching behavior with parameters used by phenomenological switching models. It has been found that in the low field regime (just above the threshold value) used in the present study, the mechanism of polarization reversal changes during the switching cycle from the initial nucleation-dominated process to the lateral domain expansion at the later stages. The classical nucleation model of Kolmogorov–Avrami–Ishibashi (KAI) provides reasonable approximation for the nucleation-dominated stage of switchi...

Mechanical stress effect on imprint behavior of integrated ferroelectric capacitors

Stress-induced changes in the imprint and switching behavior of (111)-oriented Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 (PZT)-based capacitors have been studied using piezoresponse force microscopy. Visualization of polarization distribution and d33-loop measurements in individual 1×1.5-μm2 capacitors before and after stress application, generated by substrate bending, provided direct experimental evidence of stress-induced switching. Mechanical stress caused elastic switching in capacitors with the direction of the resulting polarization determined by the sign of the applied stress. In addition, stress application turned capacitors into a heavily imprinted state characterized by strongly shifted hysteresis loops and almost complete backswitching after application of the poling voltage. It is suggested that substrate bending generated a strain gradient in the PZT layer, which produced asymmetric lattice distortion with preferential polarization direction and triggered polarization switching due to the flexoelectric effect.

Temperature and thickness dependent permittivity of (Ba,Sr)TiO3 thin films

The temperature and thickness dependence of permittivity of (Ba,Sr)TiO3 has been investigated. The films were deposited by liquid-source metalorganic chemical vapor deposition onto Pt/SiO2/Si, with thicknesses ranging from 15 to 580 nm. The dielectric response was measured from 100 to 520 K. As film thickness decreased, the maximum dielectric constant decreased, the temperature at which the maximum dielectric constant occurred decreased, and the peak in the dielectric constant became more diffuse. A model incorporating a thickness independent interior and a nonferroelectric surface cannot account for these thickness dependencies. To appropriately model these observations a physical model containing thickness and temperature dependent interior and surface components is necessary.

Domain growth kinetics in lithium niobate single crystals studied by piezoresponse force microscopy

The kinetics of sidewise domain growth in an inhomogeneous electric field has been investigated in stoichiometric LiNbO3 single crystals by measuring the lateral domain size as a function of the voltage pulse magnitude and duration using piezoresponse force microscopy. The domain size increases linearly with the voltage magnitude suggesting that the domain size is kinetically limited in a wide range of pulse magnitudes and durations. In spite of that, the written domains exhibit strong retention behavior. It is suggested that the switching behavior can be described by the universal scaling curve. Domain kinetics can be described as an activation process by calculating the field distribution using the charged sphere model under the assumption of an exponential field dependence of the wall velocity. The activation energy is found to be a function of the external field.