Preparation of conductive HfN by post rapid thermal annealing-assisted MOCVD and its application to metal gate electrode

Conductive hafnium nitride (HfN) with negligible carbon impurity (<0.1 at.%) was chemically synthesized for the first time by post-rapid thermal annealing (PRTA)-assisted metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) method. The thermodynamic instability of N-rich hafnium nitride (Hf3N4) phase, which is considered to be the dominant phase in CVD deposition of hafnium nitride, was utilized for pure and metallic HfN synthesis. By integrating the PRTA-HfN film into MOS capacitor, the electrical properties of the PRTA-HfN film as metal gate electrode were studied. Well behaved electrical characteristics such as about 4.9 eV of effective work function, low leakage current and large reduction in SiO2 equivalent oxide thickness (EOT), which was attributed to the combination of physical thinning of SiO2 and formation of high-κ interfacial layer, suggest the potential capability of PRTA-assisted MOCVD in chemically synthesizing HfN metal gate electrode for pMOS devices application.