Evaluating the top electrode material for achieving an equivalent oxide thickness smaller than 0.4 nm from an Al-doped TiO₂ film.
The effects of Pt and RuO2 top electrodes on the electrical properties of capacitors with Al-doped TiO2 (ATO) films grown on the RuO2 bottom electrode by an atomic layer deposition method were examined. The rutile phase ATO films with high bulk dielectric constant (>80) were well-grown because of the local epitaxial relationship with the rutile structured RuO2 bottom electrode. However, the interface between top electrode and ATO was damaged during the sputtering process of the top electrode, resulting in the decrease in the dielectric constant. Postmetallization annealing at 400 °C was performed to mitigate the sputtering damage. During the postmetallization annealing, the ATO layer near the RuO2 top electrode/ATO interface was well-crystallized because of the structural compatibility between RuO2 and rutile ATO, while the ATO layer near the Pt top electrode/ATO interface still exhibited an amorphous-like structure. Despite the same thickness of the ATO films, therefore, the capacitors with RuO2 top electrodes showed higher capacitance compared to the capacitors with Pt top electrodes. Eventually, an extremely low equivalent oxide thickness of 0.37 nm with low enough leakage current density (<1 × 10(-7) A/cm(2) at 0.8 V) and physical thickness of 8.7 nm for the next-generation dynamic random access memory was achieved from ATO films with RuO2 top electrodes.
Department of Materials Science and Engineering and Inter-university Semiconductor Research Center, Seoul National University , 1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul 151-742, Republic of Korea.
Woojin
W
Jeon
Sijung
S
Yoo
Hyo Kyeom
HK
Kim
Woongkyu
W
Lee
Cheol Hyun
CH
An
Min Jung
MJ
Chung
Cheol Jin
CJ
Cho
Seong Keun
SK
Kim
Cheol Seong
CS
Hwang
Al-doped TiO2; Pt; RuO2; atomic layer deposition; dead-layer effect; equivalent oxide thickness; postmetallization anneal