Dielectric Enhancement of Atomic Layer-Deposited Al(2)O(3)/ZrO(2)/Al(2)O(3) MIM Capacitors by Microwave Annealing

For metal-insulator-metal (MIM) capacitors applicated in the fields of RF, DRAM, and analog/mixed-signal integrated circuits, a high capacitance density is imperative with the downscaling of the device feature size. In this work, the microwave annealing technique is investigated to enhance the dielectric characteristics of Al(2)O(3)/ZrO(2)/Al(2)O(3) based MIM capacitors. The results show that the permittivity of ZrO(2) is increased to 41.9 (~ 40% enhanced) with a microwave annealing at 1400 W for 5 min. The substrate temperature is lower than 400 °C, which is compatible with the back end of line process. The leakage current densities are 1.23 × 10(−8) and 1.36 × 10(−8) A/cm(2) for as-deposited sample and 1400 W sample, respectively, indicating that the leakage property is not deteriorated. The conduction mechanism is confirmed as field-assisted tunneling.