Preparation and characterization of Al2O3 film deposited by RF sputtering and plasma enhanced atomic layer deposition

In this paper, the authors have investigated the structural and electrical properties of thin film of Al2O3 deposited by radio-frequency sputtering and plasma enhanced atomic layer deposition (PEALD) technique. Different deposition and process parameters for the sputtered and PEALD Al2O3 films were chosen to investigate their effect on the structural and electrical characteristics of the film. X-ray diffraction result shows the dominant peak of Al2O3 in both the cases at 2θ = 56° indicating (312) film orientation. Multiple angle analysis of sputtered and PEALD Al2O3 film shows a refractive index in the range of 1.70–1.74 and 1.65–1.69, respectively. Electrical characteristics indicate that the device fabricated by PEALD and annealed at 425 °C shows the positive flatband voltage of 3.5 V and improved leakage behavior as compared to the film deposited by sputtering.