Document VersionPublisher's PDF, also known as Version of Record (includes final page, issue and volume numbers) Please check the document version of this publication:• A submitted manuscript is the author's version of the article upon submission and before peer-review. There can be important differences between the submitted version and the official published version of record. People interested in the research are advised to contact the author for the final version of the publication, or visit the DOI to the publisher's website.• The final author version and the galley proof are versions of the publication after peer review.• The final published version features the final layout of the paper including the volume, issue and page numbers. Link to publication Citation for published version (APA):Ruhl, G., Lehnert, W., Lukosius, M., Wenger, C., Baristiran Kaynak, C., Blomberg, T., ... Rushworth, S. A. (2014). Dielectric material options for integrated capacitors. ECS Journal of Solid State Science and Technology, 3(8), N120-N125. DOI: 10.1149/2.0101408jss General rightsCopyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights.• Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research.• You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ? Take down policyIf you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim.Download date: 11. May. 2018 Science and Technology, 3 (8) N120-N125 (2014) 2162-8769/2014/3(8) Future MIM capacitor generations will require significantly increased specific capacitances by utilization of high-k dielectric materials. In order to achieve high capacitance per chip area, these dielectrics have to be deposited in three-dimensional capacitor structures by ALD or AVD (atomic vapor deposition) process techniques. In this study eight dielectric materials, which can be deposited by these techniques and exhibit the potential to reach k-values of over 50 were identified, prepared and characterized as single films and stacked film systems. To primarily focus on a material comparison, preliminary processes were used for film deposition on planar test devices. Measuring leakage current density versus the dielectric constant k shows that at low voltages (≤1 V) dielectrics with k-values up to 100 satisfy the typical leakage current density specification of <10 −7 A/cm 2 for MIM capacitors. At higher voltages (3 V) this specification is only fulfilled for dielectrics with k-values below 45. As a consequence, the maximum achievable capacitance gain by introducing high-k dielect...

In this paper, the nanolamination of a ZrO2 insulator by Al2O3 for metal insulator metal capacitor applications has been studied. The insulating layers (ZrO2 and Al2O3) were deposited by atomic layer deposition and the electrodes were made of TiN. Different configurations of ZrO2 and Al2O3 alternations were studied, including 1 to 16 Al2O3 inclusions in the ZrO2 layer. X-ray diffraction of the insulator configurations showed that with four or more Al2O3 inclusions, the structure loses its crystalline orientation and becomes amorphous. Electrical characterizations have been conducted to study the capacitance, breakdown field, and leakage current for every insulator configuration. The capacitance density significantly decreases as the number of Al2O3 layers increases, except when an amorphous transition occurs; at this point, a local maximum of 17 nF/mm2 was found. A 19% increase of the breakdown field of samples with two or more Al2O3 inclusions has been correlated with an increase of leakage current explained by the emergence of the Fowler–Nordeim conduction mechanism at electrical fields higher than 4 MV/cm.