High dielectric constant gate oxides for silicon-based devices
AssigneeAgere Systems Guardian Corp.
InventorsMinghwei Hong, Ahmet Refik Kortan, Jueinai Raynien Kwo, Joseph Petrus Mannaerts
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Abstract
A high dielectric rare earth oxide of the form Mn2O3 (such as, for example, Gd2O3 or Y2O3) is grown on a clean silicon (100) substrate surface under an oxygen partial pressure less than or equal to 10−7 torr to form an acceptable gate oxide (in terms of dielectric constant (∈˜18) and thickness) that eliminates the tunneling current present in ultra-thin conventional SiO2 dielectrics and avoids the formation of a native oxide layer at the interface between the silicon substrate and the dielectric. Epitaxial films can be grown on vicinal silicon substrates and amorphous films on regular silicon substrates to form the high dielectric gate oxide.
Claims15
A semiconductor device comprising:
- a vicinal silicon (100) substrate exhibiting a predetermined angular miscut so as to form a top major surface including surface steps of double atomic layers along the [011] direction, yielding mono-domain silicon terraces suitable for nucleating growth;
- and
- a rare earth oxide film of the form Mn2O3, exhibiting a dielectric constant ∈≧4 and deposited under an oxygen partial pressure less than 10−7 torr, to a predetermined thickness t on the mono-domain silicon terraces of said vicinal silicon substrate, without forming an SiO2 layer therebetween.
A semiconductor device comprising
- a silicon substrate defined as comprising a top major surface;
- and
- an amorphous rare earth oxide of the form Mn2O3 and exhibiting a dielectric constant ∈≧4 deposited, under an oxygen partial pressure less than 10−7 torr to a predetermined thickness t on the top major surface of the silicon substrate without forming an SiO2 film therebetween.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.