Charge trapping and degradation of high permittivity TiO₂ dielectric metal-oxide semiconductor field effect transistors

Suitable replacement materials for ultrathin SiO₂ in deeply scaled MOSFETs such as lattice polarizable films, which have much higher permittivities than SiO₂, have bandgaps of only 3.0 to 4.0 eV. Due to these small bandgaps, the reliability of these films as a gate insulator is a serious concern. Ramped voltage, time dependent dielectric breakdown, and capacitance-voltage measurements were done on 190 angstroms layers of TiO₂ which were deposited through the metal-organic chemical vapor deposition of titanium tetrakis-isopropoxide. Measurements of the high and low frequency capacitance indicate that virtually no interface states are created during constant current injection stress. The increase in leakage upon electrical stress suggests that uncharged, near-interface states may be created in the TiO₂ film near the SiO₂ interfacial layer that allow a tunneling current component at low bias.