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Studies on RF magnetron sputtered HfO2 thin films for microelectronic applications

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Abstract

We investigated the effect of oxygen flow rate during the reactive magnetron sputtering on the compositional, structural, optical and electrical properties of HfO2 films. We also studied the influence of annealing temperature on the structural and electrical properties of optimized HfO2 films of 25 to 30 nm thick. X-ray photoelectron study reveals that the films deposited at 15 SCCM of oxygen flow rate are stoichiometric and have an optical band gap of 5.86 eV. X-ray diffraction indicates that films without oxygen flow are amorphous, and beyond an oxygen flow rate of 5 SCCM exhibit polycrystalline monoclinic structure. At an annealing temperature of 600℃, tetragonal phase was observed besides the monoclinic phase. The dielectric constant of 11 and low leakage currents of 1 × 10−7 A/cm2 were achieved for the stoichiometric films. As-deposited films show significant frequency dispersion due to the presence of defect states at the HfO2/Si interface, and it reduces after annealing.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Instrumentation and Applied Physics, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, 560012, India

    P. Kondaiah, Habibuddin Shaik & G. Mohan Rao

  2. Centre for Nanomaterials and MEMS & Department of Physics, Nitte Meenakshi Institute of Technology, Yelahanka, Bangalore, 560064, India

    Habibuddin Shaik

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  1. P. Kondaiah
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Correspondence to P. Kondaiah.

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Kondaiah, P., Shaik, H. & Mohan Rao, G. Studies on RF magnetron sputtered HfO2 thin films for microelectronic applications. Electron. Mater. Lett. 11, 592–600 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13391-015-4490-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13391-015-4490-6

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