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The mechanism governing threshold voltage (Vt) modulation in NiSi/SiON n-channel metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors when doping with rare-earth elements (dysprosium or Dy in this work) is studied. In addition to the widely reported interface dipole theory, this letter provides additional evidence that the bulk trapping charges (related to the unintermixed Dy2O3 layer after device fabrication) can play an important role in determining the device Vt for the above-mentioned gate stacks. It is thus suggested that a careful design of the capping layer thickness and the thermal budget for intermixing the capping layer with host dielectrics is necessary to eliminate the impact from bulk trapping charges to the device performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this letter, we report that by using a thin Dysprosium oxide (Dy2O3) cap layer (~1-nm thick) on top of SION host dielectrics, the threshold voltage (Vt) of poly-Si/TaN gated n-FETs can be modulated to match that of the reference poly-Si/SiON devices, with a significantly scaled equivalent oxide thickness, a much reduced gate leakage, improved time-zero-break-down characteristics, and a minor degradation of the long channel devices mobility. These effects are attributed to the formation of a DySiON layer formation after full device fabrication due to the intermixing between the Dy2O3 cap and the SiON layer, as evidenced by a cross-sectional transmission-electron-microscopy measurement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]