Electrode effects on the breakdown characteristics of high-k HfO2 metal-insulator-metal capacitors

Author

Tang, W.M. ; Helander, M.G. ; Greiner, M.T. ; Ng, W.T. ; Lu, Z.H.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Univ. of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

fYear

2010

fDate

15-17 Dec. 2010

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

4

Abstract

The effects of top metal contacts on the leakage current and breakdown characteristics of HfO₂ metal-insulator-metal (MIM) capacitors were investigated. It is found that the breakdown field strength of the devices scales with the work function of the top electrode; the higher the metal work function the higher the breakdown field strength of the devices. This observation is attributed to the different barrier height formed at the contacting metal/HfO₂ interfaces, which results in various amount of charge injected into the HfO₂ dielectrics. The joule heating from these injected charges increases the defect density leading to dielectric breakdown.

Keywords

MIM devices; capacitors; electric breakdown; hafnium compounds; high-k dielectric thin films; leakage currents; work function; HfO₂; breakdown field strength; defect density; dielectric breakdown; electrode effects; high-k metal-insulator-metal capacitors; joule heating; leakage current; work function; Artificial intelligence; Electric breakdown; Electrodes; Films; High K dielectric materials; MIM capacitors; Metals;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Electron Devices and Solid-State Circuits (EDSSC), 2010 IEEE International Conference of

Conference_Location

Hong Kong

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-9997-7

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/EDSSC.2010.5713760

Filename

5713760