Lifetime projections and conduction mechanisms for Hafnium based high-k capacitor dielectrics using low thermal budget process

For the first time, we evaluated the long-term lifetime for Hafnium based high-k dielectrics such as HfO/sub 2/ and HfO/sub 2/-Al/sub 2/O/sub 3/ laminates at 25/spl middot/ /spl middot/ and 125/spl middot/ /spl middot/ in capacitor applications. The extracted Weibull slope of HfO/sub 2/ T/sub BD/ distribution shows thickness dependence to be explained by percolation theory. We demonstrate that elevated operation temperature further accelerates HfO/sub 2/ breakdown than HfO/sub 2/-Al/sub 2/O/sub 3/ laminates, resulting from severe temperature dependent leakage currents due to different conduction mechanisms.