Abstract
A low-temperature metalorganic chemical vapor deposition process was developed and optimized, using a design of experiments approach, for the growth of ultrathin aluminum oxide (Al2O3) as a potential gate dielectric in emerging semiconductor device applications. The process used the aluminum β-diketonate metalorganic precursor [aluminum(III) 2,4-pentanedionate] and water as, respectively, the metal and oxygen source reactants to grow Al2O3 films over a temperature range from 250 to 450 °C. The resulting films were analyzed by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, x-ray diffraction measurements, Rutherford backscattering spectrometry, nuclear-reaction analysis for hydrogen profiling, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and atomic force microscopy. The as-deposited Al2O3 phase was amorphous and dense and exhibited carbon and hydrogen incorporation of, respectively, 1 and 10 at.%. Postannealing at 600 °C led to a reduction in hydrogen concentration to 1 at.%, while maintaining an amorphous Al2O3 matrix.
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Skordas, S., Papadatos, F., Nuesca, G. et al. Low-temperature metalorganic chemical vapor deposition of Al2O3 for advanced complementary metal-oxide semiconductor gate dielectric applications. Journal of Materials Research 18, 1868–1876 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1557/JMR.2003.0261
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1557/JMR.2003.0261