Performance Improvement of Sm₂O₃ MIM Capacitors by Using Plasma Treatment After Dielectric Formation

In this letter, we investigate the dependence of the performance of metal-insulator-metal (MIM) capacitors with Sm2O3dielectric on plasma treatment (PT) performed before Sm2O3deposition, after Sm2O3deposition, or both before and after Sm2O3deposition. By performing PT in N2ambient (PTN) after Sm2O3dielectric formation, the effective quadratic voltage coefficient of capacitance (VCC) can be reduced from 498 to 234 ppm/V2and the effective linear VCC can be reduced from 742.3 to 172 ppm/V for MIM capacitor with Sm2O3dielectric having a capacitance density of ~ 7.5 fF/mum2. The leakage current density at +3.3 V can be reduced from 3.44 10-7to 1.60 times 10-8A/cm2by performing PTN in both before and after Sm2O3deposition. PTN after dielectric formation is an effective way to improve the performance of high-kappa dielectric MIM capacitors for RF and analog/mixed signal IC applications.