Effects of varying interfacial oxide and high-k layer thicknesses for HfO2 metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistor

A metal-oxide-semiconductor capacitor and field effect transistor with a hafnium oxide (HfO2) dielectric have been fabricated. Various thicknesses of interfacial oxide and HfO2 film have been used. The results show that the flatband voltage changed due to the change in the physical thickness of the HfO2 film, and not that of the interfacial oxide layer. In addition, the effective channel electron mobility depends on both the amount of fixed charges and the distance from the fixed charges to the Si surface. The results also suggest that the fixed charges are rather uniformly distributed throughout the bulk of high-k layer. (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics.