Current conduction mechanisms in Pr2O3/oxynitride laminated gate dielectrics

Metal-oxide-semiconductor capacitors with Pr2O3/oxynitride laminated gate dielectrics were fabricated. The current transportation of Al/Pr2O3/SiON/n-Si devices was studied at temperatures ranging from 300 to 400 K. The dominant conduction mechanism at low electric field (<0.6 MV/cm) is the hopping conduction in the laminated gate dielectrics. The determined hopping distance and activation energy is about 1.5 nm and 50±1 meV, respectively. However, the dominant conduction mechanism at high electric field (>2 MV/cm) is the Poole–Frenkel emission in which the trap energy level determined from Arrhenius plot is about 0.56±0.01 eV.