Effects of post-oxidation annealing temperature on ZrO2 thin film deposited on 4H-SiC substrate

✍ Scribed by Tedi Kurniawan; Yew Hoong Wong; Kuan Yew Cheong; Jeong Hyun Moon; Wook Bahng; Khairunisak Abdul Razak; Zainovia Lockman; Hyeong Joon Kim; Nam-Kyun Kim

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2011
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 630 KB
• Volume: 14
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1369-8001
• DOI: 10.1016/j.mssp.2010.12.011

✦ Synopsis

ZrO 2 thin film has been formed on n-type 4H-SiC substrate using a combination of metal sputtering ( $ 25 nm thick) and thermal oxidation (15 min at 500 1C) processes. Effects of post-oxidation annealing temperature (600-900 1C) on the physical and electrical properties of the thin film have been investigated. High resolution transmission electron microscopy attached with energy dispersive X-ray has been used to examine crosssectional morphology and to study element chemical distribution of the investigated region. Selected area diffraction analysis has been employed to examine crystallinity of the samples. Metal-oxide-semiconductor capacitors have been fabricated to examine leakage current through the oxide using current-voltage measurement. Oxide-semiconductor interface-trap density has been extracted using capacitance-voltage measurement. The annealing process reduced leakage current density as low as one order of magnitude. However, breakdown voltage of the oxide has been reduced. Dielectric constant extracted from this work ranges from 22 to 80, depending on the annealing temperature.