Patent ID: 7704821

Claim:
A method for forming a nitrided gate dielectric for a transistor, comprising: depositing a metal oxide high-k film on a semiconductor substrate by pulsing an atomic layer deposition chamber containing the semiconductor substrate with a metal-halide and thereafter pulsing the chamber with an oxidant; forming a high-k layer overlying the metal oxide high-k film, wherein forming the high-k layer comprises depositing a sublayer consisting of a metal nitride by pulsing the chamber with the metal halide and thereafter pulsing the chamber with NH 3 or ND 3 , the high-k layer comprising a high-k dielectric material having a dielectric constant (k) of at least 8; and selecting a value for M wherein the value represents a desired amount of nitrogen within the high-k layer, and repeating the step of depositing the sublayer until the high-k layer has an amount of nitrogen equal to the value of M.