This study examines the electrical properties and material characteristics of hafnium zirconium oxide thin films under various annealing and etching processes. High-pressure annealing is shown to significantly enhance the orthorhombic phase fraction, reaching 42% at 700 °C, with supercritical fluids treatment further increasing this to 46%. The impact of atomic layer etching and reactive ion etching on surface roughness is also analyzed, revealing increases of approximately 3.5 and 7 Å, respectively, which are mitigated by subsequent rapid thermal annealing. Additionally, high-pressure annealed capacitors exhibit a reduction in leakage current density from 10−7 to 10−9 A/cm2 and an increase in remnant polarization from 14 to 18 μC/cm2. Transmission electron microscopy and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy confirm these processes’ significant impact on the structure and performance, highlighting their value for future high-performance electronic devices.
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January 2025
Research Article|
December 13 2024
Investigating the effects of etching systems and low-temperature thermal processing on hafnium zirconium oxide thin film properties
Special Collection:
Atomic Layer Etching (ALE)
Wen-Hsi Lee;
Wen-Hsi Lee
(Funding acquisition)
1
Department of Electrical Engineering, National Cheng Kung University
, Tainan 701, Taiwan
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Edward Kuo
;
Edward Kuo
(Investigation)
1
Department of Electrical Engineering, National Cheng Kung University
, Tainan 701, Taiwan
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Chia-Nung Hung;
Chia-Nung Hung
(Investigation)
1
Department of Electrical Engineering, National Cheng Kung University
, Tainan 701, Taiwan
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Tai-Chen Kuo
Tai-Chen Kuo
a)
(Project administration, Supervision, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing)
2
Department of Electronic Engineering, Chung Yuan Christian University
, Taoyuan 320, Taiwan
a)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: [email protected]
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a)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: [email protected]
J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A 43, 012602 (2025)
Article history
Received:
September 05 2024
Accepted:
November 19 2024
Citation
Wen-Hsi Lee, Edward Kuo, Chia-Nung Hung, Tai-Chen Kuo; Investigating the effects of etching systems and low-temperature thermal processing on hafnium zirconium oxide thin film properties. J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A 1 January 2025; 43 (1): 012602. https://doi.org/10.1116/6.0004040
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