C. D'Emic

High performance CMOS fabricated on hybrid substrate with different crystal orientations

A novel structure and technology has been developed for high performance CMOS using hybrid silicon substrates with different crystal orientations (namely pFET on [110]-oriented surface and nFET on (100) surface) through wafer bonding and selective epitaxy. CMOS devices with physical gate oxide thickness of 1.2 nm have been demonstrated, with substantial enhancement of pFET drive current at L/sub poly//spl les/80 nm.

Ultrathin HfO 2 films grown on Silicon by atomic layer deposition for advanced gate dielectrics applications

We report on growth behavior, structure, thermal stability and electrical properties of ultrathin (<10 nm) hafnium oxide films deposited by atomic layer deposition using sequential exposures of HfCl4 and H2O at 300°C on a bare silicon surface or a thin thermally grown SiO2-based interlayer. Compared to good quality continuous films deposited on SiO2 surfaces, HfO2 deposited on HF-last treated Si surfaces show a non-uniform, island-like morphology and poor electrical properties due to poor nucleation on H-terminated Si. As-deposited films have a significant amorphous component and undergo crystallization to a monoclinic phase above ∼500°C. Crystallization behavior is found to be dependent on film thickness with higher crystallization temperatures for thinner films. HfO2 on an ultrathin SiO2 interlayer shows good electrical properties with gate leakage current reduced by a factor of 103 -104 with respect to conventional SiO2 gate dielectrics which justifies its consideration as a candidate for high-K dielectric for future CMOS devices.

Ultrathin high-K gate stacks for advanced CMOS devices

Reviews recent progress in and outlines the issues for high-K high-temperature (/spl sim/1000/spl deg/C) poly-Si CMOS processes and devices and also demonstrate possible solutions. Specifically, we discuss device characteristics such as gate leakage currents, flatband voltage shifts, charge trapping, channel mobility, as well as integration and processing aspects. Results on a variety of high-K candidates including HfO/sub 2/, Al/sub 2/O/sub 3/, HfO/sub 2//Al/sub 2/O/sub 3/, ZrO/sub 2/, silicates, and AlN/sub y/(O/sub x/) deposited on silicon by different deposition techniques are shown to illustrate the complex issues for high-K dielectric integration into current Si technology.

Self-aligned n-channel germanium MOSFETs with a thin Ge oxynitride gate dielectric and tungsten gate

In this letter, we report self-aligned n-channel germanium (Ge) MOSFETs with a thin Ge oxynitride gate dielectric and tungsten gate electrode. Excellent off-state current is achieved through the reduction of junction leakage. For the first time, we have demonstrated an n-channel Ge MOSFET with a subthreshold slope of 150 mV/dec and an on-off current ratio of /spl sim/10/sup 4/.

Sharp Reduction of Contact Resistivities by Effective Schottky Barrier Lowering With Silicides as Diffusion Sources

An extremely low contact resistivity of 6-7 × 10^-9 Ω·cm² between Ni_0.9Pt_0.1Si and heavily doped Si is achieved through Schottky barrier engineering by dopant segregation. In this scheme, the implantation of B or As is performed into silicide followed by a low-temperature drive-in anneal. Reduction of effective Schottky barrier height is manifested in the elimination of nonlinearities in IV characteristics.

High-

Schottky source/drain (S/D) MOSFETs hold the promise for low series resistance and extremely abrupt junctions, providing a path for device scaling in conjunction with a low Schottky barrier height (SBH). A S/D junction SBH approaching zero is also needed to achieve a competitive current drive. In this letter, we demonstrate a CMOS process flow that accomplishes a reduction of the S/D SBH for nFET and pFET simultaneously using implants into a common NiPt silicide, followed by a low-temperature anneal (500°C-600°C). These devices have high-κ/metal gate and fully depleted extremely thin SOI with sub-30-nm gate length.

\kappa

A planar self-aligned double-gate MOSFET process has been implemented where a unique sidewall source/drain structure (S/D) permits self-aligned patterning of the back-gate layer after the S/D structure is in place. This allows coupling the silicon thickness control inherent in a planar, unpatterned layer with VLSI self-alignment techniques and also gives independently controlled front and back gates. The demanding structure led to process innovations primarily in front-end CMP, where planarity within 5 nm was achieved on an 8-in diameter wafer as well as in silicided silicon source/drain sidewalls, with minimal encroachment of the silicide. Double-gate FET (DGFET) operation is demonstrated, with good transport at both interfaces. Dense circuit layouts are achieved with multifinger devices, and logic inverters with back-gate-controlled load current as well as NOR logic using the two gates of a single transistor as inputs are demonstrated.

/Metal-Gate Fully Depleted SOI CMOS With Single-Silicide Schottky Source/Drain With Sub-30-nm Gate Length

Thermally stable dual work function metal gates are demonstrated using a conventional CMOS process flow. The gate structure consists of poly-Si/metal nitrides (MN/sub x/) SiON (or high-k)/Si stack with atomic layer deposition (ALD)-TaN/sub x/ for the NFET and ALD-WN/sub x/ for the PFET. Much enhanced drive current (I/sub d/) and transconductance (G/sub m/) values, and reduced off current (I/sub off/) characteristics were attained with ALD-MN/sub x/ gated devices over control poly-Si and PVD-MN/sub x/ devices within controllable V/sub t/ shifts. Excellent scalability of dual work function MN/sub x//high-k gate stack was demonstrated: the EOT was down to 6.6/spl Aring/ with low leakage in a low thermal budget device scheme.

Two gates are better than one [double-gate MOSFET process]

The variable rise and fall time charge-pumping technique has been used to determine the energy distribution of interface trap density (D/sub it/) in MOSFETs with a HfO/sub 2/ gate dielectric grown on an ultrathin (<1 nm)-SiON buffer layer on Si. Our results have revealed that the (D/sub it/) is higher in the upper half of the bandgap than in the lower half of the bandgap, and are consistent with qualitative results obtained by the subthreshold current-voltage (I--V) measurements, capacitance-voltage (C-V), and ac conductance techniques. These results are also consistent with the observation that n-channel mobilities are more severely degraded than p-channel mobilities when compared to conventional MOSFETs with SiO/sub 2/ or SiON as the gate dielectric.

Thermally robust dual-work function ALD-MN/sub x/ MOSFETs using conventional CMOS process flow

The flatband/threshold voltages (V/sub fb//V/sub t/) in poly-Si gated pFETs with Hf-based gate dielectrics are shown to be set during poly-Si deposition and are found to remain virtually unchanged during gate implantation and activation, independent of the p-type dopant. The reaction of Si with HfO/sub 2/ at poly-Si deposition temperatures is identified as the root cause for the poor V/sub fb//V/sub t/ control. No improvement in V/sub t/ control is obtained by engineering physically closed Si/sub 3/N/sub 4/ barrier layers on HfO/sub 2/. It is furthermore shown for the first time that even when the gate is fully silicided (FUSI) large V/sub fb//V/sub t/ shifts are observed with HfO/sub 2/. Reduced pFET shifts are observed when Hf-silicates with low Hf content are used and further improvements are observed by using Al/sub 2/O/sub 3/ cap layers on silicates.