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Approaching Defect-free Amorphous Silicon Nitride by Plasma-assisted Atomic Beam Deposition for High Performance Gate Dielectric

In the past few decades, gate insulators with a high dielectric constant (high-k dielectric) enabling a physically thick but dielectrically thin insulating layer, have been used to replace traditional SiO(x) insulator and to ensure continuous downscaling of Si-based transistor technology. However, d...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Tsai, Shu-Ju, Wang, Chiang-Lun, Lee, Hung-Chun, Lin, Chun-Yeh, Chen, Jhih-Wei, Shiu, Hong-Wei, Chang, Lo-Yueh, Hsueh, Han-Ting, Chen, Hung-Ying, Tsai, Jyun-Yu, Lu, Ying-Hsin, Chang, Ting-Chang, Tu, Li-Wei, Teng, Hsisheng, Chen, Yi-Chun, Chen, Chia-Hao, Wu, Chung-Lin
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4915203/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27325155
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep28326
Descripción
Sumario:In the past few decades, gate insulators with a high dielectric constant (high-k dielectric) enabling a physically thick but dielectrically thin insulating layer, have been used to replace traditional SiO(x) insulator and to ensure continuous downscaling of Si-based transistor technology. However, due to the non-silicon derivative natures of the high-k metal oxides, transport properties in these dielectrics are still limited by various structural defects on the hetero-interfaces and inside the dielectrics. Here, we show that another insulating silicon compound, amorphous silicon nitride (a-Si(3)N(4)), is a promising candidate of effective electrical insulator for use as a high-k dielectric. We have examined a-Si(3)N(4) deposited using the plasma-assisted atomic beam deposition (PA-ABD) technique in an ultra-high vacuum (UHV) environment and demonstrated the absence of defect-related luminescence; it was also found that the electronic structure across the a-Si(3)N(4)/Si heterojunction approaches the intrinsic limit, which exhibits large band gap energy and valence band offset. We demonstrate that charge transport properties in the metal/a-Si(3)N(4)/Si (MNS) structures approach defect-free limits with a large breakdown field and a low leakage current. Using PA-ABD, our results suggest a general strategy to markedly improve the performance of gate dielectric using a nearly defect-free insulator.