Field effect transistor with etched-back gate dielectric
AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation
InventorsKatherine L. Saenger, Rajarao Jammy, Vijay Narayanan
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Abstract
A method for making an ultrathin high-k gate dielectric for use in a field effect transistor is provided. The method involves depositing a high-k gate dielectric material on a substrate and forming an ultrathin high-k dielectric by performing a thinning process on the high-k gate dielectric material. The process used to thin the high-k dielectric material can include at least one of any number of processes including wet etching, dry etching (including gas cluster ion beam (GCIB) processing), and hybrid damage/wet etching. In addition to the above, the present invention relates to an ultrathin high-k gate dielectric made for use in a field-effect transistor made by the above method.
Claims16
A method for making an ultrathin high-k gate dielectric for use in a field effect transistor comprising:
- depositing a high-k gate dielectric material on a substrate;
- forming an ultrathin high-k dielectric by performing a thinning process on said high-k gate dielectric material, wherein the ultrathin high-k dielectric has a thickness of less than about 3 nm;
- and, following the thinning process,
- forming a conductive gate structure on said ultrathin high-k dielectric;
- wherein the thinning process comprises at least one etching process.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.