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Ultrathin ferroic HfO2–ZrO2 superlattice gate stack for advanced transistors

Journal Article · · Nature (London)
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  1. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
  2. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
  3. Univ. of Notre Dame, IN (United States)
  4. Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)
  5. Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, PA (United States)
  6. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Advanced Photon Source (APS)
  7. SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States). Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL)
  8. Applied Materials, Inc., Santa Clara, CA (United States)
  9. Samsung Electronics, Gyeonggi-do (Korea, Republic of)
  10. SK hynix, Icheon (Korea, Republic of)
  11. Intel Corporation, Hillsboro, OR (United States)
  12. Samsung Electronics, Suwon (Korea, Republic of)
  13. Indian Inst. of Technology (IIT) Bombay, Mumbai (India)
  14. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Advanced Light Source (ALS)
  15. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
  16. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Molecular Foundry
  17. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations

With the scaling of lateral dimensions in advanced transistors, an increased gate capacitance is desirable both to retain the control of the gate electrode over the channel and to reduce the operating voltage. This led to a fundamental change in the gate stack in 2008, the incorporation of high-dielectric-constant HfO2, which remains the material of choice to date. Here we report HfO2–ZrO2 superlattice heterostructures as a gate stack, stabilized with mixed ferroelectric–antiferroelectric order, directly integrated onto Si transistors, and scaled down to approximately 20 ångströms, the same gate oxide thickness required for high-performance transistors. The overall equivalent oxide thickness in metal–oxide–semiconductor capacitors is equivalent to an effective SiO2 thickness of approximately 6.5 ångströms. Such a low effective oxide thickness and the resulting large capacitance cannot be achieved in conventional HfO2-based high-dielectric-constant gate stacks without scavenging the interfacial SiO2, which has adverse effects on the electron transport and gate leakage current. Accordingly, our gate stacks, which do not require such scavenging, provide substantially lower leakage current and no mobility degradation. This work demonstrates that ultrathin ferroic HfO2–ZrO2 multilayers, stabilized with competing ferroelectric–antiferroelectric order in the two-nanometre-thickness regime, provide a path towards advanced gate oxide stacks in electronic devices beyond conventional HfO2-based high-dielectric-constant materials.

Research Organization:
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-76SF00515
OSTI ID:
1875694
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1894633
OSTI ID: 1895055
Journal Information:
Nature (London), Journal Name: Nature (London) Journal Issue: 7904 Vol. 604; ISSN 0028-0836
Publisher:
Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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