Gate Dielectric Process Technology for the Sub-1 Nm Equivalent Oxide
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Bassett (continued from previous page) Gate Dielectric Process Technology for the Sub-1 nm 717 (1947); A. S. Grove, B. E. Deal, Equivalent Oxide Thickness (EOT) Era E. H. Snow, and C. T. Sah, Solid-State Electronics, 8, 145 (1965); and B. E. Deal, M. Sklar, A. S. Grove, and E. H. Future Technical Meetings Snow, J. Electrochem. Soc., 114, 266 by L. Colombo, J. J. Chambers, and H. Niimi (1967). 5. A review of the group’s work is he semiconductor industry is now where t is the physical thickness of constant of Si N , ~7.5) to the higher provided in B. E. Deal, A. S. Grove, E. SiO2 3 4 in its third generation of gate the interface layer, potentially without dielectric constant of the new gate H. Snow, and C. T. Sah, Trans. Metall. May 18-23, 2008 Oct. 4-9, 2009 dielectrics. The first generation nitrogen, t is the physical thickness dielectric (κ ≈ 15-20 for the HfO and Soc. AIME, 233, 524 (1965). For T SiON 2 was the silicon dioxide (SiO ) era from of the SiON film, κ is the dielectric ~4-24 for Hf based HfSiON. This third the papers by Fairchild researchers Phoenix, Arizona Vienna, Austria 2 the early 1960s to about the mid-1990s. constant of the nitrogen containing regime of gate dielectric technology during this time, see “Index to The benefits of SiO noted in the earlier SiO film, and the summation over “i” has also required the replacement of Published Technical Papers,” Bruce 2 2 articles in this issue of Interface included is for layers that do not have a uniform the doped poly-silicon gate electrodes Deal Papers, Collection M1051, Oct. 12-17, 2008 April 25-30, 2010 utilization as: (a) passivation of surface nitrogen profile. by metallic gate electrodes to both Department of Special Collections, dangling bonds and p-n junction Today, the era of SiON films with an reduce the poly-silicon depletion effect Stanford University Libraries, PRiME 2008 Vancouver, BC interfaces, (b) pattern/diffusion masking equivalent oxide thickness (EOT) in the and to improve the work function Stanford, California. ability, and (c) insulator supporting range of ~1.0-1.2 nm have been in mass match between the high-κ and gate 6. Bassett, To the Digital Age, Chapter 2. Honolulu, Hawaii medium for aluminum interconnects production for nearly a decade, meeting electrode materials, itself a significant 7. William E. Harding, IBM J. Res. Dev., Oct. 10-15, 2010 between sections of the integrated demanding transistor and reliability area of research. 25, 651 (1981); D. R. Kerr, J. S. Logan, circuit. In addition, the amorphous requirements. For SiON thickness less The methods utilized for the P. J. Burkhardt, and W. A. Pliskin, May 24-29, 2009 Las Vegas, NV SiO has a large energy gap (~9 eV) than ~1.0 nm, however, it was again fabrication of SiON for the second era IBM J. Res. Dev., 8, 376 (1964); J. M. 2 and a dielectric strength sufficient to found that direct tunneling leakage will be discussed in the first section, Eldridge and P. Balk, Trans. Metall. Soc. San Francisco, support electric field strengths of several currents became excessive through the status of HfSiON gate dielectric in AIME, 242, 539 (1968); J. M. Eldridge, California megavolts/cm, (106 V/cm); the latter the SiON. Scaling below ~1 nm for presented in the second section, and “A Thermochemical Evaluation of is especially critical for the required higher-performance devices and lower the appropriate metal gate issues will the Doping of SiO /Si with P O and 2 2 5 metal-oxide-semiconductor field than ~1.5 nm for lower-power devices briefly be summarized in the third B O ,” Research Report (8 December 2 3 effect transistor (MOSFET) operation. also became limited by poly-silicon section. 1966), IBM Research, Yorktown These latter benefits have enabled depletion as well as gate dielectric Heights, New York; P. Balk, “Effects the semiconductor industry to scale leakage. Initial solutions will require of Hydrogen Annealing on Silicon Silicon Oxynitride transistors down to about the 180 nm either higher content nitrogen in SiON Surfaces,” paper presented at the ECS technology node* , corresponding to an than currently in production or higher- 1965 spring meeting, San Francisco, SiON dielectrics were first SiO thickness of ~3 nm. At about this κ dielectric constant gate materials California, Extended Abstracts of For more information on these future meetings, contact ECS 2 introduced at an EOT of about 3 nm oxide thickness, direct tunneling leakage (κ ~ 10-20). the Electronics Division, Vol. 14, and at that time required less than Tel: 609.737.1902 Fax: 609.737.2743 currents rather than source-drain or Serious attention for alternate, higher Abstract 109, pp. 237-40; P. Balk, P. about 10 atomic percent nitrogen to substrate leakage currents, reached levels dielectric constant materials began in J. Burkhardt, and L. V. Gregor, Proc. www.electrochem.org minimize boron penetration and gate that were a significant portion of the about 1995 and have resulted in an IEEE, 53, 2133 (1965). leakage. Controlled incorporation of allowable device leakage (~ 33%). In extensive literature.3-5 Hafnium-based 8. “CTB Minutes, October 29, 1965,” nitrogen, especially concentration addition, at the sub 3 nm film thicknesses gate dielectrics have emerged as the 4 November 1965, 3, Box TAR 242, and depth profile, was critical to the regime, boron dopant penetration broad industrial choice for the high-κ IBM Technical History Project, IBM introduction of SiON. The key process from the boron-doped p+ poly-silicon gate dielectric material. The principal Archives, Somers, NY. that enabled the industry to introduce electrode through the SiO into the motivation for moving to high-κ gate 9. C. T. Sah, Proc. IEEE, 76, 1301 2 the first reliable SiON gate dielectric THE BENEFITS OF MEmbERSHIP CAN BE YOURS! channel region was a serious issue for dielectrics was the need to reduce the 6 (1988); Robert H. Dennard, IEEE was plasma nitridation of SiO2. pMOSFETs. An extensive literature has direct tunneling gate leakage currents. Trans. Electron Devices, 31, 1549 The advantage of plasma nitridation been published on the increasing SiO2 This was achieved by increasing the gate (1984). Dennard’s patent is Robert of SiO2 is its ability to (a.) control the gate leakage and boron penetration1,2 dielectric’s physical thickness inasmuch H. Dennard, “Field Effect Transistor dielectric layer thickness, (b.) precisely Join now for • Journal of The Electrochemical Society with decreasing oxide thickness and as the direct tunneling leakage current Memory,” U.S. Patent No. 3,387,286, control the content and/or location their impact on continued device is drastically reduced due to its filed 14 July 1967. of the nitrogen, and (c.) improve • Electrochemical and Solid-State Letters scaling as enunciated in Moore’s law. exponential dependence on the physical 10. This section is based on Bassett, To exceptional reliability. Plasma nitrided SiO2 can be The continuance of scaling gate dielectric thickness. Concurrently, the Digital Age, Chapter 5. created by (i.) top surface nitridation, • Interface, the ECS Member methodologies, however, has been the gate dielectric constant, κ, is 11. George Warfield, “Introduction,” (ii.) homogeneous SiON formation, discounts on all achieved by the incorporation of increased. These two concurrent IEEE Trans. Electron Devices, 14, 727 Magazine where the nitrogen is distributed nitrogen (~10 atomic %) in the SiO , changes result in the approximate (1967); Earl S. Schlegel, IEEE Trans. 2 uniformly through the oxide, and • Professional Development and whereby silicon oxynitride (SiON) constancy of the MOSFET’s capacitance, Electron Devices, 14, 728 (1967). ECS publications, (iii.) incorporation of nitrogen at the thicknesses ranging from ~3.0 nm a significant parameter controlling the 12. Bassett, To the Digital Age, Chapter 7. Education Si-SiO2 interface. Simulations have down to ~1.0 nm or so were achieved. speed of the device. This is achieved 13. J. C. Sarace, R. E. Kerwin, D. L. Klein, shown that top surface nitrogen page charges, The introduction of nitrogen in SiO by appropriately adjusting the ratio of and R. Edwards, Solid-State Electronics, • Discounts on Meetings and 2 profiles have better boron blocking to form SiON increases the effective the selected gate dielectric constant, κ, 11, 653 (1968); L. L. Vadasz, A. S. characteristics than other profiles. The Publications dielectric constant, κ. The higher to the dielectric’s physical thickness. Grove, T. A. Rowe, and G. E. Moore, meetings, and short bulk nitrogen concentration in SiON effective dielectric constant leads to a As a result the MOSFET electrically IEEE Spectrum, p. 28 (1969); F. Faggin has to be critically controlled, but even • Honors and Awards Program lower effective gate dielectric thickness behaves as though its gate dielectric and T. Klein, Solid-State Electronics, more critical is the concentration of N courses. that is referred to as the equivalent oxide thickness is smaller than its physical 13, 1125 (1970). • Career Center atoms at the Si-dielectric interface. thickness (EOT) described in general thickness (to reduce direct tunneling 14. Brian Santo, IEEE Spectrum, p. 108 The concentration of nitrogen by Eq. 1. leakage current) by the ratio of the at the interface has to follow the (November 1988). n dielectric constant of SiON (generally bonding constraint theory7 in order 15. Gordon E. Moore, Daedalus, 125, 55 EOT= + 3.9 (tSiON)i tSiO2 (1) slightly more than SiO ’s value of ~3.9 (Spring 1996). S κi 2 to minimize defects. According to i but significantly less than the dielectric 16. R. H. Dennard, F. H. Gaensslen, H-N. the bonding constraint theory, whose Yu, V. L. Rideout, E.