Investigation of electrical and material characteristics of high-k / III-V MOS devices and SiOx ReRAMs

In the past few decades, Si-based CMOS technology is approaching to its physical quantum limit by scaling down the gate length and gate oxide thickness to achieve higher drive current for low power and high speed application. High k/III-V stack provides an alternative solution because III-V based metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) devices have higher drive current due to the higher electron mobility than silicon. Also high k oxides lower the gate leakage current significantly due to larger thickness under the same equivalent oxide thickness (EOT) compared with SiO₂ beyond the 22 nm node. The main obstacle for high k/III-V based MOSFETs is the lack of high quality, thermodynamically stable insulators that passivate the interface, which is also the main driving force in the research area of high k/III-V stack. One of the main focuses of this dissertation is developing a fabrication process flow to lower the interface trap density to enhance the performance of MOSFETs with high k oxides on III-V substrates. Also, an emerging memory device with SiO[subscript x] is also developed. This device can be electrically switched between a high-resistance state (HRS, or OFF-state) and a low-resistance state (LRS, or ON-state). Also it shows high potential for next generation nonvolatile memories due to its small cell area, fast write/erase time, low write voltage, good endurance and scalability. The other main focuses of this dissertation is studying the electroforming, set/reset voltages and passivation issue in this resistive random access memory (RRAM or ReRAM). The first part of this dissertation is about lowering the interface trap density of high k/III-V stack by using a thin layer of Al₂O₃ or LaAlO₃. ALD Al₂O₃/HfO₂ bi-layer gate oxide with different Al₂O₃ thickness (0, 5, 10Å) was deposited. Also ALD LaAlO₃/HfO₂ bi-layer gate oxide with different LaAlO₃ thickness (0, 5, 10, 20, 30, 42Å) was deposited. The total EOT of the bi-layer was maintained at ~1.8nm. Also single La[subscript x]Al[subscript 1-X]O (X =0.25, 0.33, 0.5, 0.66, 0.75) gate dielectric with different La doping level was deposited (EOT=2.5±0.4nm). Device characteristics are compared by using different thickness of interfacial layer. The second part of this dissertation is about F incorporation into high k oxide by using SF₆ plasma. The effect of SF₆ plasma treatment of HfO₂ on III-V substrates is demonstrated. Also effect of different plasma power and different treatment time of SF₆ plasma is studied to optimize plasma conditions. High k bilayer (Al₂O₃/HfO₂) is also used to further improve the device performance by better interface passivation with Al₂O₃. HfO₂ gate oxide dielectric is also engineered using SF₆ plasma treatment to incorporate more F. The third part is a study of III-V tunneling FET using In[subscript 0.7]Ga[subscript 0.3]As p-n junction. The device performance with different n doping concentration is compared. Higher n doping concentration will increase the drive current by reducing the tunneling width while too higher n doping concentration results in tunneling in the middle of p-n junction and significantly increase the subthreshold swing. The forth part is the electroforming, set/reset and passivation study of ReRAM device with SiO[subscript x]. Different methods to reduce the electroforming voltage are developed. Set/reset process is also studied and a possible model is proposed to explain the set/ reset process. A new device structure without sidewall edge is studied for passivation and application in air. The final part is the summary of Ph.D work and also suggestions for future work are discussed.