A study of low-frequency noise on high-k/metal gate stacks with in situ SiOx interfacial layer

• Published in: 2013 22nd International Conference on Noise and Fluctuations (ICNF) pp. 1 - 4
• Main Authors: Olyaei, M., Malm, B. G., Litta, E. D., Hellstrom, P. E., Ostling, M.
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 01-06-2013
• Subjects: Chemicaloxied; Chemicals; Hafnium compounds; High K dielectric materials; high-k dielectric; interfacial layer; Logic gates; Low-frequency noise; MOSFET
• ISBN: 1479906689; 9781479906680
• DOI: 10.1109/ICNF.2013.6578981

Low-frequency noise of HfO 2 /TiN nMOSFETs with different SiO x interfacial layer (IL) thicknesses is presented. It is observed that chemically formed thin ILs (0.4 nm, 0.45 nm and 0.5 nm) show a noise level close to a reference thermal IL(1 nm). This is shown to relate to the dominant contribution of the high-k HfO 2 traps in comparison to the IL traps. The average extracted values for effective trap densities in these wafers are N t = 7×10 18 , 1×10 19 , 2×10 19 and 4.8×10 19 for thermal oxide, 0.5 nm, 0.45 nm and 0.4 nm chemical oxide wafers respectively.