Patent attributes
The present invention provides a method for fabricating a dielectric stack in an integrated circuit comprising the steps of (i) forming a high-k dielectric layer on a semiconductor substrate, (ii) subjecting the semiconductor substrate with the high-k dielectric layer to a nitrogen comprising vapor phase reactant and silicon comprising vapor phase reactant in a plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition process (PECVD) or a plasma-enhanced atomic layer chemical vapor deposition (PE ALCVD) process. Furthermore, the present invention provides a dielectric stack in an integrated circuit comprising (i) a high-k dielectric layer comprising at least a high-k material, (ii) a dielectric layer comprising at least silicon and nitrogen; (iii) an intermediate layer disposed between the high-k dielectric layer and the dielectric layer, the intermediate layer comprising the high-k material, silicon, and nitrogen.