Scaling the gate dielectric: materials, integration, and reliability

In this paper a review of the more 'fundamental' concerns regarding the scaling of the gate dielectric in the ultrathin regime is presented. Material issues are discussed pertaining to the integration of silicon oxynitride and oxide/nitride stacked layers and how such films might reduce or minimize boron penetration problems and address leakage current and reliability concerns. A methodology is presented to calculate device and chip lifetimes for MOS structures on the basis of data extracted from voltage- and temperature-accelerated measurements. Some integration issues regarding higher-k materials are also discussed because of their ability to solve the scaling problem. However, difficulties are involved in integrating them into a CMOS process flow.