(Invited) Interface and Border Traps, Their Passivation and the Reliability of Alumina Dielectric / Indium Gallium Arsenide Gate Stacks
Authors: McIntyre Paul C. 
Published: February 2020

Both interface defects and border traps - charge traps in the gate oxide - influence the behavior of InGaAs metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) devices. This presentation will summarize the different effects of interface and border traps on the temperature- and bias-stress behavior of aluminum oxide/InGaAs MOS gate stacks, and will describe methods for passivating these defects both prior to and after gate dielectric deposition. The influence of local interface chemistry and the complex role of hydrogen as a defect passivant are highlighted.

In one set of experiments, a temperature dependent border trap response for Al2O3 gate dielectrics is investigated.1 This behavior is unexpected for defects that have typically been reported to charge and discharge through direct tunneling of electrons from the n-type substrate. Temperature dependent border trap frequency dispersion of the accumulation capacitance and conductance is found to be correlated with the presence of a defective interfacial layer, which can be intentionally produced either by excessive exposure to hydrating or oxidizing species during atomic layer deposition of Al2O3 or by use of a previously-reported aqueous HCl wet clean of the InGaAs surface prior to ALD. These results point out the sensitivity of the temperature dependence of the border trap response in metal oxide/III-V MOS gate stacks to the presence of processing-induced interface oxide layers, which alter the dynamics of carrier trapping at defects that are not located at the semiconductor interface.

I also report on the effects of pre- and post-atomic layer deposition (ALD) defect passivation with hydrogen on the trap density and reliability of Al2O3/InGaAs gate stacks.2, 3 Reliability is characterized by capacitance-voltage hysteresis measurements on samples prepared using different fabrication procedures and having different initial trap densities. Despite its beneficial ability to passivate both interface and border traps, a final forming gas (H2/N2) anneal (FGA) step is found to induce a significant hysteresis. This is caused by hydrogen depassivation of defects in the gate stack under bias stress, supported by the observed bias stress-induced increase of interface trap density, and strong hydrogen isotope effects on the measured hysteresis. Additional strategies, beyond hydrogen annealing, for more stable interface defect passivation on InGaAs will be discussed briefly.

K. Tang, A.C. Meng, R. Droopad, and P.C. McIntyre, "Temperature Dependent Border Trap Response Produced by a Defective Interfacial Oxide Layer in Al2O3/InGaAs Gate Stacks,” ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces
8, 30601-07 (2016).

K. Tang, F.R. Palumbo, L. Zhang, R. Droopad, and P.C. McIntyre “Interface Defect Hydrogen Depassivation and Capacitance–Voltage Hysteresis of Al2O3/InGaAs Gate Stacks,” ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces
9, 7819-25 (2017).

K. Tang, R. Droopad, and P.C. McIntyre, “Bias Temperature Stress Induced Hydrogen Depassivation from Al2O3/InGaAs Interface Defects,” J. Appl. Phys.
123, 025708 (2018).