Trapping in GdSiO high-k films

In this article, the authors systematically characterized TiN/GdSiO/ SiO 2 /Si metal oxide semiconductor capacitors from the point of view of charge trapping. Charge trapping was investigated measuring the flatband voltage with the pulsed capacitance-voltage (C-V) technique, in condition of injection from gate and substrate. As a result, a bell shaped curve of the flatband shift versus trapping time was found, with a turn-around at 100-200 μs. This was explained as the concomitant of transient phenomena due to a charge of opposite polarity starting from the two different interfaces of the high- k film. This study was possible only because of the pulsed C-V technique. At long times, trapping has always shown a logarithmic trend and the kinetics of trapping is linearly dependent on the applied voltage. Finally, dc and pulsed stress were performed at voltages of interest for logic applications. © 2011 American Vacuum Society.