Regensburg 2010 – scientific programme

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DF: Fachverband Dielektrische Festkörper

DF 6: Focus Session: High-k and high mobility materials for CMOS

DF 6.1: Invited Talk

Tuesday, March 23, 2010, 10:00–10:40, H11

Gate Oxides beyond SiO₂ and the High K Materials Revolution — •Darrell Schlom — Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Cornell University, USA

A major materials milestone has been achieved that transforms the materials makeup of silicon-based field-effect transistors: the SiO₂ gate dielectric has been replaced by a hafnium-based dielectric in microprocessors produced by leading manufacturers. The incredible electronic properties of the SiO₂/silicon interface are the reason that silicon has dominated the semiconductor industry and helped it grow to over 250 billion US dollars in annual sales. The shrinkage of transistor dimensions has led to tremendous improvements in circuit speed and computer performance. At the same time, however, it has also led to exponential growth in the static power consumption of transistors due to quantum mechanical tunneling through an ever-thinner SiO₂ gate dielectric. This spurred an intensive effort to find an alternative to SiO₂ with a higher dielectric constant (K) to temper this exploding power consumption and enable Moore’s law to continue. In this talk the comprehensive materials analysis to identify silicon-compatible materials that go beyond SiO₂ (i.e., with higher K and sufficient bandgap) will be described, together with how these materials have enabled improvements in MOSFETs, DRAM, and emerging semiconductor devices.