Atomic layer deposition of oxides for microelectronics

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Atomic layer deposition of high-κ oxides has gained interest due to the wide applications in microelectronics. For gate dielectric application, amorphous oxides are preferred for the structural uniformity at nanometer scale. La x M 2- x O 3 (M = Sc, Lu or Y) films were deposited by ALD with metal amidinate precursors and H 2 O. Both LaScO 3 and LaLuO 3 films are amorphous and free of interfacial layers. Besides the structural benefits, both oxides have high dielectric constants (∼23 for LaScO 3 and 28 ± 1 for LaLuO 3 ), low leakage current density, and very few bulk traps, and are scalable to EOT E max , films peel off from the substrate due to the recombinative desorption of O 2 . The impurities are mainly O (0.27±0.03at.%) and C (0.30±0.05at.%). The C is mostly segregated along grain boundaries, which are less dense than the grain interiors.