The stability of Al2O3 films during thermal processing will help determine their usefulness as an alternative gate dielectric for advanced complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor devices. We used medium energy ion scattering and atomic force microscopy to examine the degradation of ultrathin Al2O3 layers under ultrahigh vacuum annealing and the effects of low-temperature oxidation. No degradation is observed at 900 °C, but voids appear at higher temperatures. Growth of interfacial SiO2 takes place during low-pressure oxidation at 600 °C, which may limit the capacitance of extremely thin structures.

Topics
CMOS, Dielectric materials, Atomic force microscopy, Spectroscopy, Thin films
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