Cha-young Yoo

Conformal CVD-ruthenium process for MIM capacitor in giga-bit DRAMs

To realize the gigabit-scale DRAM capacitor, it is necessary to develop new electrode materials instead of poly-Si and TiN. Among them, Ruthenium has been the most promising electrode material in advance of Pt or Ir because it can be easily etched by oxygen plasma and shows good electrical properties as a capacitor electrode. But, a CVD-Ru film with good conformality and smooth morphology actually applicable to gigabit-scale DRAM generations has not been known up to now. In this work, we present the development of novel CVD process for application in real device with 3-dimensional structure and the electrical properties of capacitor using CVD-Ru electrode.

Electrical Properties of Crystalline Ta2O5 with Ru Electrode

As one candidate capacitor for dynamic random access memories (DRAMs) of 4 Gbit and beyond, we investigated the electrical properties of Ru/Ta2O5/Ru. In this paper, the dielectric constant of Ta2O5 was measured as a function of annealing temperature and, also, its dependence on film thickness was studied. The effect of postannealing, which was performed after forming a capacitor, on the leakage current of Ru/crystalline-Ta2O5/Ru capacitor was evaluated. Additionally, the leakage current was investigated as a function of Ta2O5 film thickness. Through these experiments, a reliable 7 A Toxeq. of Ta2O5 with a Ru electrode was obtained, which indicates that the Ru/crystalline-Ta2O5/Ru capacitor is a promising candidate for DRAMs of 4 Gbit and beyond.

Improvement of Contact Resistance between Ru Electrode and TiN Barrier in Ru/Crystalline-Ta2O5/Ru Capacitor for 50 nm Dynamic Random Access Memory

The contact resistance (RC) between a Ru electrode and a TiN plug in a crystalline Ta2O5 capacitor using Ru electrodes was evaluated. The TiN plug was oxidized in TiOx to increase the RC to failure. Two origins of oxygen are determined by Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) analysis, namely, the seed step of Ru deposition and the initial step of Ta2O5 deposition. During Ta2O5 crystallization annealing at 700°C, the oxygen molecules from Ru diffused into the TiN plug, forming TiOx. Ru films with Ti exhibited a decreased RC below 1 kΩ/contact and an increased leakage current of a Ru/Ta2O5/Ru capacitor according to the applied voltage, compared with Ru films without Ti. The atomic layer deposition (ALD) Ru process including a H2 plasma treatment decreased the RC to 2.5 kΩ/contact on average. The fabrication scheme for the crystalline Ta2O5 capacitor using the Ru electrode for reducing RC between the Ru storage node and the TiN plug was proposed.

A robust alternative for the DRAM capacitor of 50 nm generation

As a new alternative for the DRAM capacitor of 50 nm generation, Ru/Insulator/TiN (RIT) capacitor with the lowest Toxeq of 0.85 nm has been successfully developed for the first time. TiO/sub 2//HfO/sub 2/ and Ta/sub 2/O/sub 5//HfO/sub 2/ double-layers were used as dielectric materials. After full integration into 512 Mbits DRAM device, the RIT capacitor showed good electrical properties and thermal stability up to 550/spl deg/C and its time-dependent-dielectric-breakdown behavior sufficiently satisfied 10-year lifetime within a DRAM operation voltage.

TiN/HfO/sub 2//TiN capacitor technology applicable to 70 nm generation DRAMs

We have developed a cylindrical TiN/HfO/sub 2//TiN (TIT) capacitor for 70 nm DRAMs application. TIT capacitors with HfO/sub 2/ films deposited by ALD(Atomic Layer Deposition) using Hf(NEtMe)/sub 4/ precursor and O/sub 2/ plasma as a reactant is shown to be applicable to DRAM device below 70 nm design rule for the first time. It shows the thermal budget endurance against back-end process of DRAM device as well as the very low enough Toxeq of about 13 /spl Aring/ to provide the sufficient cell capacitance.

Effects of annealing of (Ba,Sr)RuO3 bottom electrodes on the electrical properties of (Ba,Sr)TiO3 thin films

The annealing of (Ba,Sr)RuO3 films which are structurally and chemically matched with (Ba,Sr)TiO3 films was performed in oxygen and nitrogen atmospheres in the temperature range of 600–750 °C for 30 min. The effects of annealing the (Ba,Sr)RuO3 on the physical and electrical properties of the (Ba,Sr)TiO3 films were investigated. The x-ray diffraction peak of the annealed (Ba,Sr)RuO3 film at high temperatures revealed that the (Ba,Sr)TiO3 film is thermally more stable than RuO2. The (Ba,Sr)RuO3 film under N2 annealed showed lower electrical resistivity and larger surface roughness compared with those under O2. In addition, from the sequential two-step annealing process using O2 and N2, and by reversing the annealing sequence, the electrical resistivity and the surface roughness of the (Ba,Sr)RuO3 film turned out to be reversible. The (Ba,Sr)TiO3 film on the N2 annealed (Ba,Sr)RuO3 showed a higher leakage current than that on the O2 annealed bottom electrode because rough surface can cause a high local elec...

Rugged Metal Electrode (RME) for High Density Memory Devices

Rugged metal electrode (RME) was suggested and evaluated as a bottom electrode of high-density memory capacitors. Rugged ruthenium films (RME-Ru) were successfully fabricated through volume shrinking of ruthenium oxide films under reduction ambient (RuOx+H2=Ru+H2O). The effective surface area of RME-Ru films was significantly enlarged due to the formation of wrinkle on its surface, which resulted in low SiO2 equivalent thickness (Tox) as low as ~ 6 A with Ru/TaOx(110 A)/RME-Ru capacitor. It is believed that RME technique will be very useful to realize and extend MIM (Metal-Insulator-Metal) capacitor era in the mass production of high density memory devices.

Investigation of Ru/TiN Bottom Electrodes Prepared by Chemical Vapor Deposition

Ru thin films were prepared by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) using cyclopentadienyl-propylcyclopentadienlylruthenium(II) [RuCp(i-PrCp)] and the nucleation behaviors of Ru films on Ta2O5, TiN, Si3N4, SiO2, TiO2 substrates were investigated. It appeared that the difference in nucleation behaviors on various substrates is due to the bonding type between atoms in substrate materials. The nucleation property of Ru films on TiN was successfully improved by plasma treatment of the TiN substrate using Ar before film deposition. It was found that the Ar plasma treatment selectively removes N ions from the surface, makes the TiN surface more metallic or ionic (due to the residual Ti-O bonding), and reduces the nucleation barrier. In addition, the oxidation resistance of Ru/TiN layers was improved by H2 annealing, which made the Ru films more dense.

A novel robust TiN/AHO/TiN capacitor and CoSi/sub 2/ cell pad structure for 70nm stand-alone and embedded DRAM technology and beyond

For the first time, a novel robust (square-shape cylinder type) TiN/AHO (Al/sub 2/O/sub 3/-HfO/sub 2/)/TiN capacitor with Co-silicide on landing cell pad suitable for both stand-alone and embedded DRAMs are successfully developed with 88nm (pitch 176nm) feature size, which is the smallest feature size ever reported in DRAM technology, using ArF lithography for aiming 70nm stand-alone and embedded DRAM technology. The capacitor with Toxeq of 1.5nm and leakage current of less than 1 fA/cell is achieved. The cell contact resistance is greatly improved by using Co-silicidation on landing cell pad and metal storage node contact plug, which results in high performance.

New approaches to improve the endurance of TiN/HfO/sub 2//TiN capacitor during the back-end process for 70nm DRAM device

We have successfully developed a MIM capacitor process technology with a HfO/sub 2/ single layer deposited by ALD (atomic layer deposition), where a Hf(NEtMe)4 and CVD-TiN cylinder-type storage-node were used as a Hf liquid source and bottom electrode for 90 nm-scale DRAMs. Our experimental results indicated that NH/sub 3/-plasma treatment on HfO/sub 2/ film promoted crystallization below 400/spl deg/C as well as the formation of a HfO/sub x/N/sub y/ layer on the surface of the HfO/sub 2/ film. With this treatment, it was possible to solve the degradation problem of the leakage current depending on deposition method of the top electrode, and a stable leakage current without degradation was obtained up to 550/spl deg/C. As a result, a TiN/HfO/sub 2//TiN (TIT) capacitor with 1.4 /spl mu/m-height storage node was successfully demonstrated with stable leakage current of 1fA/cell at +1.2 V and high cell capacitance of 40 fF after metal-2 integration.