Temperature control for the gate workfunction engineering of TiC film by atomic layer deposition

•The workfunction (WF) of the ALD TiC film is affected by growth temperature.•Electrical properties of the ALD TiC film are explained with metrological analyses.•Averaged sub-plane WF of the polycrystalline TiC film determines the total WF.•Tunable WF of TiC film is compatible with a gate-first and/or gate-last process.•The TiC film has intrinsically high thermal stability and low resistivity.

The effects of the deposition temperature on titanium carbide film formed by atomic layer deposition are investigated for gate workfunction (WF) engineering. As the deposition temperature increases from 250 °C to 500 °C, the WF of the TiC decreases from 5.24 eV to 4.45 eV. This WF dependency on the deposition temperature is mainly attributed to the average WF of each orientation of the sub-planes of the TiC film. An investigation of a tunable WF is conducted through Auger electron spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and X-ray diffraction.