Patent attributes
The use of atomic layer deposition (ALD) to form a semiconductor structure of a silicon film on a germanium substrate is disclosed. An embodiment includes a tantalum nitride gate electrode on a hafnium dioxide gate dielectric on the silicon film (TaN/HfO2/Si/Ge), which produces a reliable high dielectric constant (high k) electronic structure having higher charge carrier mobility as compared to silicon substrates. This structure may be useful in high performance electronic devices. The structure is formed by ALD deposition of a thin silicon layer on a germanium substrate surface, and then ALD forming a hafnium oxide gate dielectric layer, and a tantalum nitride gate electrode. Such a structure may be used as the gate of a MOSFET, or as a capacitor. The properties of the dielectric may be varied by replacing the hafnium oxide with another gate dielectric such as zirconium oxide (ZrO2), or titanium oxide (TiO2).
