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Atomic Layer Deposited Thin Films for Dielectrics, Semiconductor Passivation, and Solid Oxide Fuel Cells
thesis
posted on 2013-06-28, 00:00 authored by Runshen XuHigh dielectric constant, κ, materials have been recognized to be promising candidates to replace traditional SiO2 and SiON, because they enable good scalability of sub-45 nm MOSFET (metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor) without inducing additional power consumption and heat dissipation. In addition to high dielectric constant, high-κ materials must meet a number of other requirements, such as low leakage current, high mobility, good thermal and structure stability with Si to withstand high-temperature source-drain activation annealing. In this thesis, atomic layer deposited (ALD) Er2O3 doped TiO2 is studied and proposed as a thermally stable amorphous high-κ dielectric on Si substrate. The stabilization of TiO2 in its amorphous state is found to achieve a high permittivity of 36, a hysteresis voltage of less than 10 mV, and a low leakage current density of 10−8 A/cm2 at −1 MV/cm.
In III-V semiconductors, issues including unsatisfied dangling bonds and native oxides often result in inferior surface quality that yields non-negligible leakage currents and degrades the long-term performance of devices. The traditional means for passivating the surface of III-V semiconductors are based on the use of sulfide solutions; however, that only offers good protection against oxidation for a short-term (i.e., one day). In this work, in order to improve the chemical passivation efficacy of III-V semiconductors, ultra-thin layer of encapsulating ZnS is coated on the surface of GaSb and GaSb/InAs substrates. The 2 nm-thick ZnS film is found to provide a long-term protection against reoxidation for one order and a half longer times than prior reported passivation likely due to its amorphous structure without pinholes.
Finally, a combination of binary ALD processes is developed and demonstrated for the growth of yttria-stabilized zirconia films using alkylamido-cyclopentadiengyls zirconium and tris(isopropyl-cyclopentadienyl)yttrium, as zirconium and yttrium precursors, respectively, with ozone being the oxidant. The desired cubic structure of YSZ films is apparently achieved after post-deposition annealing. Further, platinum is atomic layer deposited as electrode on YSZ (8 mol% of Yttria) within the same system. In order to control the morphology of as-deposited Pt thin structure, the nucleation behavior of Pt on amorphous and cubic YSZ is investigated.
History
Advisor
Takoudis, ChristosDepartment
Chemical EngineeringDegree Grantor
University of Illinois at ChicagoDegree Level
- Doctoral
Committee Member
Low, Ke-Bin Feinerman, Alan Klie, Robert Jursich, GregorySubmitted date
2013-05Language
- en
Issue date
2013-06-28Usage metrics
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