Work function tuning of reactively sputtered MoxSiyNz metal gate electrodes for advanced CMOS technology

Abstract

Due to continued transistor scaling, work function tuning of metal gates has become important for advanced CMOS applications. Specifically, this research has been undertaken to discover the tuning of the MoxSiyNz gate work function through the incorporation of nitrogen. Metal Oxide Semiconductor (MOS) capacitors were fabricated using thermal SiO2 as gate oxide on lightly doped p-type Si wafer. A molybdenum silicide (MoSi2) target was reactively sputtered at 10mTorr in presence of N2 and Ar. The gas flow ratio, RN = N2/ (N2+Ar), was adjusted to vary the nitrogen concentration in MoSiN films. The gate work function (Фm) was extracted from capacitance-voltage (CV) measurements using the VFB-tox method. Interfacial barrier heights were measured using internal photoemission (IPE) as an independent confirmation of the MoSiN gate work function. The work function was found to decrease linearly (from ~4.7eV to ~4.4eV) for increasing gas flow ratios (from 10% to 40%). Secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) depth profiles suggested that the nitrogen concentration was relatively uniform throughout the film. X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) surface analysis showed a steady increase in the total nitrogen concentration (from ~20% to 32%) in these films as gas flow ratio was increased. These data suggests that the increase in nitrogen concentration in MoSiN films corresponds directly with the lowering of MoSiN work function. These results clearly demonstrate that the work function of MoxSiyNz can be varied ~0.3 eV by adjusting the nitrogen concentration.