Premium
Spectroscopic analysis of the process‐dependent microstructure of ultra‐thin high‐ k gate dielectric film systems
Author(s) -
Lysaght Patrick S.,
Bersuker Gennadi,
Tseng HsingHuang,
Jammy Raj
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
surface and interface analysis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.52
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 1096-9918
pISSN - 0142-2421
DOI - 10.1002/sia.2432
Subject(s) - x ray photoelectron spectroscopy , dielectric , thin film , annealing (glass) , analytical chemistry (journal) , materials science , electron diffraction , diffraction , microstructure , gate dielectric , scanning electron microscope , synchrotron , chemistry , optics , optoelectronics , nanotechnology , nuclear magnetic resonance , metallurgy , physics , composite material , chromatography , transistor , voltage , quantum mechanics
HfO 2 gate dielectric thin films have been exposed to anneal processing in NH 3 and N 2 ambient in order to decouple the influence of N incorporation from that of the thermal cycle alone. We report on the effectiveness of NH 3 processing to introduce N into the dielectric film system during intermediate temperature annealing. Several high‐resolution techniques including electron microscopy with electron energy loss spectra (EELS), rotationally averaged selective area electron diffraction, grazing incidence X‐ray diffraction and synchrotron X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) have been utilized to elucidate chemical composition and crystalline structure differences between samples annealed in NH 3 and N 2 ambient as a function of temperature. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.