Effect of increasing deposition temperature of atomic-layer–deposited ZrO2thin films: improvement of leakage-current properties

초록

ZrO<inf>2</inf>thin films with tetragonal phase are widely used in semiconductor devices owing to their relatively high bandgap and superior dielectric constant. As the sizes of charge-storage devices continue to decrease, suppressing leakage current has become very important, and not just from the dielectric-properties perspective. The leakage current is affected by the physical properties of dielectric thin films, such as impurities and oxygen vacancies. Increasing the deposition temperature results in advantages such as reduction of impurities and oxygen vacancies in the thin film, enhancement of crystallinity, and increase of the film density. Therefore, in this study, we employ a thermally stable precursor to analyze in detail the physical and electrical properties of ZrO<inf>2</inf>thin films deposited at higher temperatures compared to those obtained using conventional commercial precursors. In particular, it is confirmed that the leakage-current–suppression characteristics improve because of the changes in trap level and band structure as the deposition temperature increases. The changes in the characteristics of ZrO<inf>2</inf>thin films, according to the deposition temperature, are presented in this work, which can help improve capacitor performance. © 2025 Elsevier Ltd and Techna Group S.r.l. All rights are reserved, including those for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies.

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