Jeffrey M. Finder

Field effect transistors with SrTiO3 gate dielectric on Si

SrTiO3 has been grown epitaxially by molecular beam epitaxy on Si. The capacitance of this 110 A dielectric film is electrically equivalent to less than 10 A of SiO2. This structure has been used to make capacitors and metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors. The interface trap density between the SrTiO3 and the Si is 6.4×1010 states/cm2 eV and the inversion layer mobility is 221 and 62 cm2/V s for n- and p-channel devices, respectively. The gate leakage in these devices is two orders of magnitude smaller than a similar SiO2 gate dielectric field effect transistor.

Epitaxial oxide thin films on Si(001)

Over the years, the development of epitaxial oxides on silicon has been a great technological challenge. Amorphous silicon oxide layer forms quickly at the interface when the Si surface is exposed to oxygen, making the intended oxide heteroepitaxy on Si substrate extremely difficult. Epitaxial oxides such as BaTiO3 (BTO) and SrTiO3 (STO) integrated with Si are highly desirable for future generation transistor gate dielectric and ferroelectric memory cell applications. In this article, we review the recent progress in the heteroepitaxy of oxide thin films on Si(001) substrate by using the molecular beam epitaxy technique at Motorola Labs. Structural, interfacial and electrical properties of the oxide thin films on Si have been characterized using in situ reflection high energy electron diffraction, x-ray diffraction, spectroscopic ellipsometry, atomic force microscopy, Auger electron spectroscopy, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, high-resolution transmissi...

Epitaxial ferroelectric Pb(Zr, Ti)O3 thin films on Si using SrTiO3 template layers

In this letter, we report on the integration of epitaxial ferroelectric Pb(Zr, Ti)O3 (PZT) thin films on Si [100] substrates using a SrTiO3 (STO) template layer and a conducting perovskite (La0.5Sr0.5)CoO3 electrode. X-ray diffraction studies reveal both in-plane and out-of-plane alignment of the heterostructure. The epitaxial films show extremely high remnant polarization as well as piezoelectric d33 coefficients compared to textured and untextured polycrystalline films.

Realizing intrinsic piezoresponse in epitaxial submicron lead zirconate titanate capacitors on Si

We report on the out-of-plane piezoelectric response (d33), measured via piezoresponse scanning force microscopy, of submicron capacitors fabricated from epitaxial PbZrxTi1−xO3 thin films. Investigations on 1 μm2 and smaller capacitors show that the substrate-induced constraint is dramatically reduced by nanostructuring. At zero field, the experimentally measured values of d33 for clamped as well as submicron capacitors are in good agreement with the predictions from thermodynamic theory. The theory also describes very well the field dependence of the piezoresponse of clamped capacitors of key compositions on the tetragonal side of the PbZrxTi1−xO3 phase diagram as well as the behavior of submicron PbZr0.2Ti0.8O3 (hard ferroelectric) capacitors. However, the field-dependent piezoresponse of submicron capacitors in compositions closer to the morphotropic phase boundary (soft ferroelectrics) is different from the behavior predicted by the theoretical calculations.

GaAs MESFETs fabricated on Si substrates using a SrTiO 3 buffer layer

Heteroepitaxial growth of GaAs on an Si substrate has been achieved through the use of crystalline SrTiO/sub 3/ (STO) and amorphous SiO/sub 2/ buffer layers. The buffer layers serve to accommodate some of the lattice mismatch between the substrate and the GaAs epilayers. Field-effect transistors fabricated in the GaAs epilayers show performance comparable to similar devices fabricated on GaAs substrates. The mobility in the GaAs/STO/Si sample is 2524 cm/sup 2//Vs compared to a GaAs/GaAs sample with mobility of 2682 cm/sup 2//Vs. A 0.7 /spl mu/m gate length device has I/sub d max/ of 367 mA/mm and G/sub m max/ of 223 mS/mm. These devices also have good RF performance with f/sub max/ of 14.5 GHz and class AB power density of 90 mW/mm with an associated power-added efficiency of 38% at 1.9 GHz. This RF performance is within experimental error of similar devices fabricated on GaAs substrates. Preliminary reliability results show that after 800 h at 200/spl deg/C, the GaAs/STO/Si sample showed 1.2% degradation in drain current.

Epitaxial perovskite thin films grown on silicon by molecular beam epitaxy

Thin film perovskite-type oxide SrTiO3 has been grown epitaxially on Si(001) substrate by molecular beam epitaxy. Reflection high energy electron diffraction and x-ray diffraction analysis indicate high quality SrTiO3 heteroepitaxy on Si substrate with SrTiO3(001)//Si(001) and SrTiO3[010]//Si[110]. The SrTiO3 surface is atomically as smooth as the starting substrate surface, with a root mean square roughness of 1.2 A observed by atomic force microscopy. The thickness of the amorphous interfacial layer between SrTiO3 and Si has been engineered to minimize the device short channel effect. An effective oxide thickness <10 A has been obtained for a 110 A thick dielectric film. The interface state density between SrTiO3 and Si is 6.4×1010 cm−2 eV−1, and the inversion layer carrier mobilities are 221 and 62 cm2 V−1 s−1 for n- and p-channel metal–oxide–semiconductor devices with 1.2 μm effective channel length, respectively. The gate leakage in these devices is two orders of magnitude smaller than a comparable S...

Development of high dielectric constant epitaxial oxides on silicon by molecular beam epitaxy

Thin films of perovskite-type oxide SrTiO 3 have been grown epitaxially on Si(001) substrates using molecular beam epitaxy. Using reflection high energy electron diffraction (RHEED) we have determined the optimum growth conditions for these type of oxides directly on silicon. Also, observations of RHEED during growth and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis indicate that high quality heteroepitaxy on Si takes place with SrTiO 3 (001)//Si(001) and SrTiO 3 [010]//Si[110]. Thin SrTiO 3 layers grown directly on Si were used as the gate dielectric for the fabrication of MOSFET devices. An effective oxide thickness < 10 A has been obtained for a 110 A thick SrTiO 3 dielectric film with interface state density around 6.4 x 10 10 cm -2 eV -1 , and the inversion layer carrier mobilities of 220 and 62 cm 2 V -1 s -1 for NMOS and PMOS devices, respectively.

Interface characterization of high-quality SrTiO3 thin films on Si(100) substrates grown by molecular beam epitaxy

Single-crystal SrTiO3 has been grown on Si(100) using molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). The growth conditions, especially at the initial stage of nucleation, have a great impact on the SrTiO3/Si interface. A regrowth of an amorphous interfacial layer as thick as 23 A has been observed and identified as a form of SiOx. This is a direct result of an internal oxidation during the growth of the STO film due to the oxygen diffusion and reaction with the silicon substrate at the interface. The optimization of the deposition process in terms of growth temperature and oxygen partial pressure has led to an interfacial layer as thin as 11 A. Metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) capacitors with an equivalent oxide thickness tox of 12 A and a leakage current of 2×10−4 A/cm2 have been obtained for a 50 A SrTiO3.

Study of microstructure in SrTiO3/Si by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy

©2002 Materials Research Society. The original publication is available at: http://www.mrs.org/

Epitaxial PbZr.52Ti.48O3 films on SrTiO3/(001)Si substrates deposited by sol–gel method

We report on the sol–gel deposition and characterization of high-quality, epitaxial films of PbZr.52Ti.48O3 (PZT) on (001)Si substrates, with a thickness range of 400 A to 1 μm. The epitaxial growth of PZT on (001)Si is achieved using a thin template layer of SrTiO3, grown by molecular-beam epitaxy. The sol–gel PZT films have a typical surface roughness of 5 A and exhibit well defined reflective high-energy electron diffraction patterns characteristic of smooth, epitaxial films. Using high-resolution transmission electron microscopy and double-crystal x-ray diffraction, we find that the PZT films are oriented with the c axis normal to the (001)Si plane and with the a axis lying along 〈110〉Si direction. Finally, we measure the electromechanical coupling coefficients and the surface acoustic wave velocities for our films as a function of thickness and compare our experimental data to previously published theoretical values for this system.