Investigation of High-K Dielectric Properties with the Non-Contact SASS Technique

Non-contact high-k monitoring techniques based on pulsed corona charging of dielectrics and time resolved voltage measurements with a vibrating CPD probe were applied to stacked HfO2 layers grown by atomic layer deposition on p-type Si. It is shown that this approach enables a combination of C-V type measurements with a high field current measurement in the tunneling range. The combination of the two provides a powerful means for quantitative characterization of gate dielectrics that gives the equivalent oxide thickness, EOT, and the leakage indicator, LI, that is a logarithmic measure of dielectric leakage current. When applied to a skew of different HfO2 thicknesses the approach gives the EOT of the interlayer, the dielectric constant of HfO2 and the HfO2 conduction band offset.