Patent ID: 8658501

Claim:
A method for causing a flatband shift in a field effect transistor, comprising: providing a substrate; providing a high-k dielectric layer deposited on the substrate; providing a gate electrode deposited on the high-k dielectric layer; providing a dipole layer positioned directly between the high-k dielectric layer and the gate electrode; and shifting a threshold voltage of the field effect transistor such that the field effect transistor experiences the flatband shift, where a direction of the shifting is defined by a shift parameter of the dipole layer, and the shifting comprises: forming the dipole layer from a material that results in the shift parameter having a value greater than one when the field effect transistor is an n-type field effect transistor, causing the threshold voltage to shift to a negative voltage; and forming the dipole layer from a material that results in the shift parameter having a value less than one when the field effect transistor is a p-type field effect transistor, causing the threshold voltage to shift to a positive voltage.