In this paper, we report the fabrication, electrical and physical characteristics of TiN/HfO2/Si MOS capacitors with erbium (Er) ion implantation. It is demonstrated that the flat band voltage can be reduced by 0.4 V due to the formation of Er oxide. Moreover, it is observed that the equivalent oxide thickness is thinned down by 0.5 nm because the thickness of interfacial layer is significantly reduced, which is thought to be attributed to the strong binding capability of the implanted Er atoms with oxygen atoms. In addition, cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy experiment shows that the HfO2 layer with Er ion implantation is still amorphous after annealing at a high temperature. This Er ion implantation technique has the potential to be implemented as a band edge metal gate solution for NMOS without a capping layer, and may also satisfy the demand of the EOT reduction in 32 nm technology node.
A study on the single event transient （SET） induced by a pulsed laser in a silicon-germanium （SiGe） heterojunction bipolar transistor （HBT） is presented in this work. The impacts of laser energy and collector load resistance on the SET are investigated in detail. The waveform, amplitude, and width of the SET pulse as well as collected charge are used to characterize the SET response. The experimental results are discussed in detail and it is demonstrated that the laser energy and load resistance significantly affect the SET in the SiGe HBT. Furthermore, the underlying physical mechanisms are analyzed and investigated, and a near-ideal exponential model is proposed for the first time to describe the discharge of laser-induced electrons via collector resistance to collector supply when both base-collector and collector-substrate junctions are reverse biased or weakly forward biased. Besides, it is found that an additional multi-path discharge would play an important role in the SET once the base-collector and collector-substrate junctions get strongly forward biased due to a strong transient step charge by the laser pulse.
The physical and electrical properties of a Ge/GeO2/HfO2/Al gate stack are investigated.A thin interfacial GeO2 layer（- 1 nm） is formed between Ge and HfO2 by dual ozone treatments,which passivates the Ge/high-k interface.Capacitors on p-type Ge substrates show very promising capacitance-voltage（C-V） characteristics by using in situ pre-gate ozone passivation and ozone ambient annealing after high-k deposition,indicating efficient passivation of the Ge/HfO2 interface.It is shown that the mid-gap interface state density at the Ge/GeO2 interface is 6.4×10^11 cm^-2·eV^-1.In addition,the gate leakage current density of the Ge/GeO2/HfO2/Al gate stack passivated by the dual ozone treatments is reduced by about three orders of magnitude compared to that of a Ge/HfO2/Al gate stack without interface passivation.
A PNPN tunnel field effect transistor（TFET） with a high-k gate dielectric and a low-k fringe dielectric is introduced.The effects of the gate and fringe electric fields on the TFET＇s performance were investigated through two-dimensional simulations.The results showed that a high gate dielectric constant is preferable for enhancing the gate control over the channel,while a low fringe dielectric constant is useful to increase the band-to-band tunneling probability.The TFET device with the proposed structure has good switching characteristics,enhanced on-state current,and high process tolerance.It is suitable for low-power applications and could become a potential substitute in next-generation complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor technology.
The degradations in NPN silicon-germanium （SiGe） heterojunction bipolar transistors （HBTs） were fully studied in this work, by means of 25-MeV Si, 10-MeV C1, 20-MeV Br, and 10-MeV Br ion irradiation, respectively. Electrical parameters such as the base current （IB）, current gain （β）, neutral base recombination （NBR）, and Early voltage （VA） were investigated and used to evaluate the tolerance to heavy ion irradiation. Experimental results demonstrate that device degradations are indeed radiation-source-dependent, and the larger the ion nuclear energy loss is, the more the displacement damages are, and thereby the more serious the performance degradation is. The maximum degradation was observed in the transistors irradiated by 10-MeV Br. For 20-MeV and 10-MeV Br ion irradiation, an unexpected degradation in Ic was observed and Early voltage decreased with increasing ion fluence, and NBR appeared to slow down at high ion fluence. The degradations in SiGe HBTs were mainly attributed to the displacement damages created by heavy ion irradiation in the transistors. The underlying physical mechanisms are analyzed and investigated in detail.
