Room temperature grown zirconia/SiO/sub 2/ dielectric stacks with 1 nm EOT

Metal-oxide films such as zirconia and hafnia are currently being investigated to replace silicon dioxide as the gate dielectric material in future CMOS devices. It is important to develop processing science to grow these dielectric films of high electrical quality. Previously, we have grown zirconia films by ultraviolet ozone oxidation (UVO) on chemical oxide with electrical thickness ranging from 1.6 - 2.0 nm. In this study, the UVO method has been used to grow both ultra-thin zirconia films and sub-nanometer thick SiO/sub 2/ films at room temperature.