Title :
Localized degradation and breakdown study of cerium-oxide high-к gate dielectric material using scanning tunneling microscopy
Author :
Shubhakar, K. ; Pey, K.L. ; Kushvaha, S.S. ; O´Shea, S.J. ; Bosman, M. ; Kouda, M. ; Kakushima, K. ; Iwai, H.
Author_Institution :
Div. of Microelectron., Nanyang Technol. Univ., Singapore, Singapore
Abstract :
In this work, we use scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) to study the localized degradation, breakdown and post-breakdown of a high-κ (HK) gate dielectric material, cerium oxide (CeO2) deposited directly on a silicon substrate. The novelty of the study lies in analyzing the breakdown phenomenon from a macroscopic metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) capacitor level to a very localized nanoscale breakdown location. The physics of failure for these polycrystalline cerium oxide HK films is also discussed.
Keywords :
MOS capacitors; cerium compounds; electric breakdown; high-k dielectric thin films; scanning tunnelling microscopy; silicon; CeO2; STM; Si; breakdown phenomenon; cerium-oxide high-κ gate dielectric material; failure physics; localized degradation; macroscopic metal-oxide-semiconductor capacitor level; polycrystalline cerium oxide HK films; post-breakdown; scanning tunneling microscopy; silicon substrate; very localized nanoscale breakdown location; Cerium; Degradation; Dielectric breakdown; Dielectric materials; Dielectric substrates; Electric breakdown; MOS capacitors; Microscopy; Silicon; Tunneling;
Conference_Titel :
Physical and Failure Analysis of Integrated Circuits (IPFA), 2010 17th IEEE International Symposium on the
Conference_Location :
Singapore
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4244-5596-6
DOI :
10.1109/IPFA.2010.5531999
