Correlation between the nanoscale electrical and morphological properties of crystallized hafnium oxide-based metal oxide semiconductor structures
Iglesias Santiso, Vanessa (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament d'Enginyeria Electrònica)
Porti i Pujal, Marc (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament d'Enginyeria Electrònica)
Nafría i Maqueda, Montserrat (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament d'Enginyeria Electrònica)
Aymerich Humet, Xavier (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament d'Enginyeria Electrònica)
Dudek, P. (Innovations for High Performance Microelectronics (Frankfurt, Alemanya))
Schroeder, T. (Innovations for High Performance Microelectronics (Frankfurt, Alemanya))
Bersuker, G. (SEMATECH (Austin, Estats Units d'Amèrica))
American Physical Society

Date:	2010
Abstract:	The relationship between electrical and structuralcharacteristics of polycrystalline HfO2films has been investigated by conductive atomic force microscopy under ultrahigh vacuum conditions. The results demonstrate that highly conductive and breakdown (BD) sites are concentrated mainly at the grain boundaries (GBs). Higher conductivity at the GBs is found to be related to their intrinsic electrical properties, while the positions of the electrical stress-induced BD sites correlate to the local thinning of the dielectric. The results indicate that variations in the local characteristics of the high-k film caused by its crystallization may have a strong impact on the electrical characteristics of high-k dielectric stacks.
Rights:	Tots els drets reservats.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Subject:	Dielectric thin films ; Electrical properties ; Leakage currents ; Crystallization ; Electric currents ; Grain boundaries
Published in:	Applied physics letters, Vol. 97, Issue 26 (December 2010) , p. 262906/1-262906/3, ISSN 1077-3118

DOI: 10.1063/1.3533257

4 p, 1.2 MB

The record appears in these collections:
Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Engineering > The Reliability of Electron Devices and Circuits group (REDEC)
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles