Reliability comparison of pure ZrO2 and Al− doped ZrO2 MIM capacitors

In this paper, the authors have shown that the Al-doping concentration of ZrO₂ based dielectrics in BEOL has a big influence on electrical properties and reliability. Despite steep field acceleration behavior undoped ZrO₂ suffers from early failures and uncontrolled leakage mechanisms. High Al-concentrations also show higher leakage current and less reliability. It is recommended to apply only small Al-doping concentrations in order to benefit from good field acceleration and capacitance density as well as low leakage current.