Applications

High-K Metal Gate (HKMG)

MST Squeezes Higher Speed and Lower Power from Leading Edge CMOS

Fig.1 electron mobility vs. effective field[1]
Fig.1 electron mobility vs. effective field[1]
Fig.2 Gate leakage vs. EOT[1]
Fig.2 Gate leakage vs. EOT[1]

The 28nm technology node was the last generation of planar CMOS.
At 28nm, the conventional poly-Si/SiON gate stack was replaced by HKMG (High-K Metal Gate) to suppress gate leakage. HKMG degrades carrier mobility, so strain engineering technology was used to boost carrier mobility with a greater effect seen on PMOS than NMOS

Fig.3 Rsh vs. Xj (NFET) [2]
Fig.3 Rsh vs. Xj (NFET) [2]
Fig.4 Rsh vs. Xj (PFET) [2]
Fig.4 Rsh vs. Xj (PFET) [2]
  • Atomera’s MST film can improve HKMG NMOS carrier mobility by 23%, as shown in Figure 1
  • Gate leakage is reduced by 2.7x, shown in Figure 2, enabling HKMG EOT(Equivalent Oxide Thickness) scaling down to the physical limit
  • Added benefits of the MST film include lower sheet resistance at shallower junction depth, shown for NMOS in Figure 3, PMOS in Figure 4

Publications

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Experimental Investigation of N-Channel Oxygen-Inserted (OI) Silicon Channel MOSFETs with High-K/Metal Gate Stack

2018 76th Device Research Conference (DRC)

J.A. Smith ; H. Takeuchi ; R. Stephenson ; Y.A. Chen ; M. Hytha ; R. J. Mears ; S. Datta

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Effects of oxygen-inserted layers and oxide capping layer on dopant activation for the formation of ultrashallow p-n junctions in silicon

Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology B 36, 061211 (2018)

Xi.Zhang, D. Connelly, H. Takeuchi, M. Hytha, R. J. Mears, L. M. Rubin, and T.-J. King Liu

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