Degradation mechanism of HfAlOX/SiO2 stacked gate dielectrics studied by transient and steady-state leakage current analysis.

Degradation mechanism of stacked high-k gate dielectrics has been studied with metal-oxide-semiconductor capacitors having HfAlO_X/SiO₂ films of various thickness combinations. A large leakage current with a peaked shape, named as the low-voltage peak current (LVPC), has been observed in the low-voltage region even in the initial current–voltage characteristics. It has been shown that a main part of LVPC is the transient current component controlled by the process of hole injection to traps in the vicinity of the HfAlO_X/SiO₂ interface through the interfacial SiO₂ layer. By the electrical stress, both the transient and the steady-state current components monotonically increase with time having different rates. Steady-state component has significantly larger rate than the transient component, and the same rate with the stress-induced leakage current (SILC) observed in the high-voltage region, indicating that the steady-state component of LVPC should be regarded as the SILC in the higher-voltage region extending down to the lower gate voltage region where the LVPC is observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]