Patent ID: 7094712

Claim:
A method of forming a hafnium oxide layer on a substrate comprising: positioning the substrate in a vacuum chamber; forming a first atomic scale hafnium oxide layer by introducing an organic hafnium precursor into the vacuum chamber under conditions sufficient to form a chemisorbed layer of the organic hafnium precursor on the substrate; purging the reaction chamber to remove substantially all of the organic hafnium precursor not included in the chemisorbed layer; introducing a first oxidant into the vacuum chamber under conditions sufficient to cause the first oxidant to react with the chemisorbed layer to form hafnium oxide and reaction byproducts; purging the vacuum chamber to remove substantially all remaining first oxidant and a major portion of the reaction byproducts; forming additional atomic scale hafnium oxide layers by repeatedly introducing the organic hafnium precursor into the vacuum chamber under conditions sufficient to form a chemisorbed layer of the organic hafnium precursor on a previous atomic scale hafnium oxide layer; purging the reaction chamber to remove substantially all of the organic hafnium precursor not included in the chemisorbed layer; introducing the first oxidant into the vacuum chamber under conditions sufficient to cause the first oxidant to react with the chemisorbed layer to form hafnium oxide and reaction byproducts; purging the vacuum chamber to remove substantially all unreacted first oxidant and a major portion of the reaction byproducts to produce a hafnium oxide layer of thickness t including n atomic scale hafnium oxide layers, wherein n≧4; and treating the hafnium oxide layer with a second oxidant for a first flush period sufficient to reduce a level of organic contamination throughout substantially the entire thickness t of the hafnium oxide layer.