IUVSTA 15th International Vacuum Congress (IVC-15), AVS 48th International Symposium (AVS-48), 11th International Conference on Solid Surfaces (ICSS-11)
    Dielectrics Monday Sessions
       Session DI-MoA

Paper DI-MoA4
High Frequency Characterization of Thin Films with High Dielectric Constant

Monday, October 29, 2001, 3:00 pm, Room 130

Session: High K Dielectrics I
Presenter: J. Westlinder, Uppsala University, Sweden
Authors: J. Westlinder, Uppsala University, Sweden
K. Larsson, Uppsala University, Sweden
H.-O. Blom, Uppsala University, Sweden
J. Olsson, Uppsala University, Sweden
Correspondent: Click to Email
New dielectric materials are required in future IC's. Not only a new gate oxide with higher dielectric constant is needed, but also high dielectric materials must be used in on-chip integrated capacitors in order to increase the integration density. We have investigated the high frequency behavior of (Metal-Insulator-Metal) MIM-capacitors in the frequency range from 1 MHz to 10 GHz. The insulator thin films (about 100 Å to 2000 Å) have been made of high dielectric constant materials, e.g. Ta@sub 2@O@sub 5@, ZrO@sub 2@, or HfO@sub 2@. In the tantalum oxide case, there seems to be a dependence in dielectric constant with frequency. At higher frequencies (over about 1 GHz) there is a rapid decrease in the dielectric constant due to relaxation effects. A first order equivalent circuit model has been developed and simulated, showing good agreement with the measurements. Also, the results show a decrease in dielectric constant with decreasing thickness of the films. These preliminary results indicate that the performance of RF-devices and RF-circuits might be seriously degraded in the GHz region. In addition, the DC I-V characteristics were measured in terms of leakage current density and breakdown voltage, and will be presented.