Patent ID: 7897450

Claim:
A method, comprising: forming a gate stack above a semiconductor layer, said gate stack comprising a high-k dielectric material and a metal-containing material formed on said high-k dielectric material forming a first oxygen-blocking layer on exposed surface portions of said gate stack in a first deposition ambient at a first process temperature; and forming a second oxygen-blocking layer on said first oxygen-blocking layer in a second deposition ambient at a second process temperature that is higher than said first process temperature, wherein said first and second deposition ambients are established in the same process reactor, and wherein establishing said second deposition ambient comprises discontinuing supply of first precursor materials after forming said first oxygen-blocking layer on the basis of said first precursor materials, heating said process reactor at a specified rate up to a pre-deposition temperature that corresponds to said second process temperature, maintaining said pre-deposition temperature for a specified stabilization period and supplying second precursor materials to form said second oxygen-blocking layer.