Regensburg 2004 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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DF: Dielektrische Festkörper

DF 5: Poster

DF 5.2: Poster

Mittwoch, 10. März 2004, 14:30–18:00, Poster C

Properties of high-k dielectric materials studied by conducting Atomic-Force Microscopy — •Harald Wurmbauer¹, Sascha Kremmer¹, Christian Teichert¹, Friedemar Kuchar¹, and Grazia Tallarida² — ¹Department of Physics, University of Leoben, A-8700 Leoben — ²Laboratorio MDM - INFM, I-20041 Agrate Brianza, Milano

The steadily shrinking device dimensions in semiconductor devices demand for advanced electrical characterization methods operating on the nanometer scale. One suitable technique already used for the evaluation of silicon gate oxide quality is Conducting Atomic-Force Microscopy (C-AFM).

Here, C-AFM is used to study different high-k dielectric materials with regard to their electric properties and homogeneity. Therefore, materials like ZrO₂ and HfO₂, grown by atomic layer chemical vapor deposition on a silicon substrate are studied by C-AFM in ultra high vacuum (UHV). The UHV conditions are mandatory to avoid surface modifications during the experiments. Local current-voltage measurements are used to obtain a statistical distribution of the leakage current as a function of voltage. This provides an insight into the influence of the amorphous or crystalline structure of the films depending on their thickness and heat treatment. Further, two-dimensional current scans with a positive voltage applied to the sample are performed to obtain the local distribution of the leakage current.