The thermal stability of a nanolaminate (Al2O3/ZrO2/Al2O3) gate stack prepared by atomic layer chemical vapor deposition was investigated using medium-energy ion scattering spectroscopy, and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. We observed that the structure was stable up to 1000 °C under ultrahigh vacuum conditions. However, annealing in a nitrogen or oxygen ambient at 1 atm yielded the formation of an interfacial Zr–Al silicate layer at much lower temperatures. The growth of the interfacial silicate layer could be significantly reduced during furnace annealing via the use of plasma nitridation.
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
Chang et al. (2002) studied this question.