Highly Reliable TiN/ZrO2/TiN 3D Stacked Capacitors for 45 nm Embedded DRAM Technologies

For the first time, we report a complete evaluation of a TiN/ZrO
₂
/TiN stacked capacitor suitable for 45 nm embedded DRAM (eDRAM). Indeed, this study, done on a real integration (65 nm 3D stacked capacitor flow), shows that zirconium oxide, deposited at low temperature (275degC) by atomic layer deposition (ALD), meets all the 45 nm eDRAM specifications: an equivalent oxide thickness (EOT) below 8 Aring with leakage current density within criterion (<1 fA/cell at 125degC), a good uniformity, low defectivity, and a lifetime > 10 years (at Vdd = 1V)