Patent ID: 7713854

Claim:
A method of forming a gate dielectric layer, comprising the steps of: (a) forming a gate dielectric layer over a substrate; (b) processing the gate dielectric layer with carbon-containing ions after step (a), (c) processing the gate dielectric layer with at least one ion source from the group consisting of nitrogen (N), germanium (Ge), calcium (Ca), scandium (Sc), strontium (Sr), yttrium (Y), lanthanum (La), aluminum (Al), tantalum (Ta), titanium (Ti), niobium (Nb), zirconium (Zr) and hafnium (Hf); (d) thermally processing the gate dielectric layer, thereby providing the gate dielectric layer with a level of carbon between about 1 atomic % and about 20 atomic %; and (e) forming a gate electrode above the gate dielectric layer.