Electrical properties of thin SiON/Ta2O5 gate dielectric stacks

The electrical characteristics of metal-oxide-semiconductor capacitors with SiON/Ta2O5 gate dielectric stacks with thin Ta2O5 layers (6-10 nm) are investigated. From the field and temperature dependence of the current of the gate stacks, it is shown that the main conduction mechanism at low bias is tunneling through the stack and that Poole-Frenkel conduction in the Ta2O5 layer becomes important at larger bias and temperature. From the analysis of the data in the high voltage and temperature range, taking into account the field distribution in both layers, the refractive index n of Ta2O5 and the energy level phi(B) of traps involved in Poole-Frenkel conduction are found to be 2.3 and 0.85 eV, respectively. It is also shown that the gate current density of the stack is reduced by one to three orders of magnitude as compared to SiO2 layers with equivalent electrical thickness (2.5-3 nm). The temperature acceleration effect on the time-dependent dielectric breakdown is shown to be much reduced in the SiON/Ta2O5 stack as compared to SiO2 layers with equivalent electrical thickness. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-8979(99)02823-6].