Effect of Plasma on Characteristics of Zirconium Oxide Films Deposited by Plasma-Enhanced Atomic Layer Deposition

The effect of plasma on the deposition of films was investigated using plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition. Plasma pulse width and oxidant gas composition were varied to examine the effect on film characteristics. Characteristics such as impurity content, dielectric constant, and electric field-current density curve were strongly dependent on the plasma pulse width. The relative dielectric constants of films deposited at 150°C were greatly increased from 11.2 to 31.3 with increasing plasma pulse width from 0.2 to 1.5 s. The addition of gas to the plasma had only a slight effect on film characteristics.