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Electrical study of ZrO2/Si system formed at different oxidation/nitridation temperatures for extended duration in N2O ambient

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 October 2013

Yew Hoong Wong  and
Kuan Yew Cheong
Yew Hoong Wong*
Affiliation:
Center of Advanced Manufacturing and Material Processing, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Kuan Yew Cheong
Affiliation:
Electronic Materials Research Group, School of Materials and Mineral Resources Engineering, Engineering Campus, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 14300 Nibong Tebal, Penang, Malaysia
*
a)Address all correspondence to this author. e-mail: yhwong@um.edu.my
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Abstract

Electrical properties of ZrO2 formed by simultaneous oxidation and nitridation of sputtered Zr thin films on Si have been systematically investigated. Various oxidation/nitridation temperatures (500, 700, 900, and 1100 °C) have been carried out in N2O ambient for an extended time of 20 min. Results indicated that the sample oxidized and nitrided at 700 °C possessed the highest effective dielectric constant of 18.22 and electrical breakdown field of 10.7 MV/cm at a current density of 10−6 A/cm2. This is attributed to the lowest effective oxide charge, interface-trap density, and total interface-trap density. The Fowler–Nordheim tunneling mechanism has been investigated for all samples and the highest value of barrier height extracted between the conduction band edges of oxide and semiconductor was 1.22 eV.

Keywords

oxidedielectricelectrical properties
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Materials Research , Volume 28 , Issue 21 , 14 November 2013 , pp. 2985 - 2989
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2013 

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References

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