Implementing nanotechnology in VLSI by replacing transistor gate dielectric SiO2 with ZrSiO4

For implementing nanotechnology in VLSI, the replacement of silicon dioxide (SiO₂) in gate dielectric becomes a challenging issue. Our innovation is to use Zirconium Silicate (ZrSiO₄) as the replacement of SiO₂ in gate dielectric, while companies like AMD, IBM and Intel have announced plans to replace the gate dielectric with Hafnium Silicate (HfSiO₄). The implementation of ZrSiO₄ is one of several strategies developed to allow further miniaturization of VLSI in nanometer scale referred to as extending Moore´s Law. In this paper, the problem with the present SiO₂ gate dielectric is defined and the potential of ZrSiO₄ films as an alternative gate dielectric is demonstrated. The remainder of this paper correlates ZrSiO₄ with HfSiO₄ and describes the advantages and disadvantages of implementing nanotechnology in VLSI using ZrSiO₄ and its applications.