Flexible and robust capping-metal gate integration technology enabling multiple-VT CMOS in MuGFETs

We report, for the first time, a comprehensive study on various capping integration options for WF engineering in MuGFET devices with TiN gate electrode: HfSiO/cap/TiN, cap/HfSiO/TiN and HfSiO/TiN/cap/TiN vs. reference deposition sequence HfSiO/TiN (cap = Al₂O₃ for pmos, and Dy₂O₃ or La₂O₃ for nmos). We show that: 1) low-VT values (Lt 0.3 V) are achieved for both nmos and pmos, with excellent process control and device behavior down to Lg ap 50 nm and W_FIN ap 20 nm, for optimized gate stack configurations; 2) inserting a cap layer in-between TiN layers instead of HfSiO/cap/TiN leads to improved mobility, reduced CET without impacting J_G, similar noise response and improved BTI behavior, with correction of the abnormal PBTI degradation seen for HfSiO/DyO/TiN. Is also enables simplified and more robust CMOS co-integration of low- and med-VT devices in the same wafer, avoiding loss in CET and damage of the host dielectric with the cap removal process.