Electrical Stress in High Permittivity TiO2 Gate Dielectric MOSFETs

Suitable replacement materials for ultrathin SiO2 in deeply scaled MOSFETs such as lattice polarizable films, which have much higherpermittivities than SiO2, have bandgaps of only 3.0 to 4.0 eV. Due to these small bandgaps, the reliability of these films as a gate insulator is a serious concern. Ramped voltage, time dependent dielectric breakdown, and hot carrier effect measurements were done on 190 layers of TiO2 which were deposited through the metal-organic chemical vapor deposition of titanium tetrakis-isopropoxide (TTIP). Measurements of the high and low frequency capacitance indicate that virtually no interface state are created during constant current injection stress. The increase in leakage upon electrical stress suggests that uncharged, near-interface states may be created in the TiO2 film near the SiO2 interfacial layer that allow a tunneling current component at low bias.