Electronic components with doped metal oxide dielectric materials and a process for making electronic components with doped metal oxide dielectric materials

• US 5,923,056 A
• Filed: 03/12/1998
• Issued: 07/13/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 10/10/1996
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Bell Semiconductor, LLC (Hilco Inc. (d/b/a Hilco Global))
• Original Assignee: Lucent Technologies, Inc. (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Lee, Woo-Hyeong, Manchanda, Lalita
• Primary Examiner(s): Barlow, John
• Assistant Examiner(s): Bui, Bryan
• Application Number:
  US09/041,434
• Time in Patent Office: 488 Days
• Field of Search: 438/3, 438/240, 438/253, 438/261, 438/787, 438/791, 438/909, 257/192, 257/295, 257/298, 257/300, 257/316, 257/410, 257/411, 364/468.28, 364/490
• US Class Current: 257/192
• CPC Class Codes: C23C 14/081 of aluminium, magnesium or beryllium
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 21/02145 the material containing aluminium, e.g. AlSiOx
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 21/02178 the material containing aluminium, e.g. Al2O3
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 21/02181 the material containing hafnium, e.g. HfO2
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 21/02189 the material containing zirconium, e.g. ZrO2
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 21/02192 the material containing at least one rare earth metal element, e.g. oxides of lanthanides, scandium or yttrium
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 21/02194 the material containing more than one metal element
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 21/02266 deposition by physical ablation of a target, e.g. sputtering, reactive sputtering, physical vapour deposition or pulsed laser deposition
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 21/28211 in a gaseous ambient using an oxygen or a water vapour, e.g. RTO, possibly through a layer H01L21/28194 and H01L21/28202 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 21/31604 Deposition from a gas or vapour H01L21/31691, H01L21/31695 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 29/40114 the electrodes comprising a conductor-insulator-conductor-insulator-semiconductor structure
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 29/511 with a compositional variation, e.g. multilayer structures H01L29/516 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 29/517 the insulating material comprising a metallic compound, e.g. metal oxide, metal silicate H01L29/518 takes precedence

Abstract

A doped, metal oxide dielectric material and electronic components made with this material are disclosed. The metal oxide is a Group III or Group VB metal oxide (e.g. Al₂ O₃, Y₂ O₃, Ta₂ O₅ or V₂ O₅) and the metal dopant is a Group IV material (Zr, Si, Ti, and Hf). The metal oxide contains about 0.1 weight percent to about 30 weight percent of the dopant. The doped, metal oxide dielectric of the present invention is used in a number of different electronic components and devices. For example, the doped, metal oxide dielectric is used as the gate dielectric for MOS devices. The doped, metal oxide dielectric is also used as the inter-poly dielectric material for flash memory devices.

Claims

1. An electronic component comprising a dielectric material, wherein the dielectric material is a metal oxide of a group III metal or group VB metal that is doped with at least one group IV element, wherein the Groups are from groups of the Mendeleef Periodic Table, and wherein the dielectric material is about 0.1 weight percent to about 30 weight percent dopant.

2. The electronic component of claim 1 wherein the metal oxide is selected from the group consisting of aluminum oxide, yttrium oxide, tantalum pentoxide, and vanadium oxide, the dopant is selected from the group consisting of zirconium, silicon, titanium, and hafnium.

3. The electronic component of claim 1 wherein the amount of dopant is about 0.1 weight percent to about 10 weight percent of the dielectric material.

4. The electronic component for claim 1 wherein the component is an MOS device and the dielectric material is the gate dielectric of the MOS device.

5. The electronic component for claim 1 wherein the component is an MIS device and the dielectric material is the gate dielectric of the MIS device.

6. The electronic component for claim 1 wherein the component is a nonvolatile memory device and the dielectric material is the interpoly dielectric layer of the nonvolatile memory device.

7. The electronic component of claim 1 wherein the component is a capacitor for a dynamic random access memory device.

8. The electronic component of claim 1 wherein the component is a linear capacitor and the dielectric material is the capacitor dielectric material.

9. The electronic component of claim 1 wherein the Group III metal or Group VB metal has a first energy of oxide formation and the Group IV element has a second energy of oxide formation and wherein the formation is greater than the second energy of oxide formation.

10. The electronic component of claim 1 wherein the dielectric material is a multilayer structure in which at least one of the layers is the doped, metal oxide layer.