Deposition and electrical characterization of hafnium oxide films on silicon

Hafnium oxide dielectric is under intense investigation in recent years as a new high‐k insulator to replace silicon dioxide thus allowing further device scaling in silicon technology. In this work we investigate HfO2 deposited films using RF reactive sputtering technique and we present results on their electrical characterization using MOS capacitors. The HfO2 films have been sputtered on n or p‐type Si substrate from high purity HfO2 target at low deposition rate (0.1 Å/s) monitored by a quartz crystal. After deposition of the insulator aluminum has been evaporated and patterned to form MIS capacitors. In this paper we investigate the effect of deposition parameters and post‐deposition‐annealing on the electrical properties of the HfO2 films. (© 2008 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)