Abstract
We report the structural and electrical properties of hafnium oxide (HfO$_2$) films with tungsten silicide (WSi$_2$) metal gate. In this study, HfO$_2$thin films were fabricated by oxidation of sputtered Hf metal films on Si, and WSi$_2$was deposited directly on HfO$_2$by LPCVD. The hysteresis windows in C-V curves of the WSi$_2$HfO$_2$/Si MOS capacitors were negligible (<20 mV), and had no dependence on frequency from 10 kHz to 1 MHz and bias ramp rate from 10 mV to 1 V. In addition, leakage current was very low in the range of 10$^{-9}$ ~10$^{-10}$ A to ~ 1 V, which was due to the formation of interfacial hafnium silicate layer between HfO$_2$and Si. After PMA (post metallization annealing) of the WSi$_2$/HfO$_2$/Si MOS capacitors at 500 $^{\circ}C$ EOT (equivalent oxide thickness) was reduced from 26 to 22 $\AA$ and the leakage current was reduced by approximately one order as compared to that measured before annealing. These results indicate that the effect of fluorine diffusion is negligible and annealing minimizes the etching damage.
