Zirconium and/or hafnium silicon-oxynitride gate dielectric

Abstract

A field effect semiconductor device comprising a high permittivity zirconium (or hafnium) silicon-oxynitride gate dielectric and a method of forming the same are disclosed herein. The device comprises a silicon substrate 20 having a semiconducting channel region 24 formed therein. A zirconium silicon-oxynitride gate dielectric layer 36 is formed over this substrate, followed by a conductive gate 38. Zirconium silicon-oxynitride gate dielectric layer 36 has a dielectric constant is significantly higher than the dielectric constant of silicon dioxide. However, the zirconium silicon-oxynitride gate dielectric may also be designed to have the advantages of silicon dioxide, e.g. high breakdown, low interface state density, and high stability.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.