Improved electrical characteristics and reliability of amorphous InGaZnO metal–insulator–semiconductor capacitor with high κ HfO x N y gate dielectric

Abstract: High κ HfO x N y film was deposited on amorphous InGaZnO (a-IGZO) by radio-frequency reactive sputtering using an HfO2 target in nitrogen plus argon ambience, the electrical characteristics and reliability of a-IGZO metal–insulator–semiconductor (MIS) capacitors were investigated. Experimental results indicate that the nitrogen incorporation into HfO2 can produce a strong nitride interfacial barrier layer, thus lead to reducing the interface state density, suppressing the hysteresis voltage, and decreasing the gate-leakage current. Improved performance has been achieved for HfO x N y gate dielectric a-IGZO MIS capacitors, with a interface state density of 5.1×1011 eV−1 cm−2, a gate-leakage current density of 3.9×10−5 A/cm2 at Vfb +1V, an equivalent permittivity of 24, and a hysteresis voltage of 105mV. Moreover, the enhanced reliability of Al/HfO x N y /a-IGZO MIS capacitor is observed with a small degradation of electrical characteristics after a high field stressing at 10MV/cm for 3600s. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]