We present theoretical and experimental results regarding the thermodynamic stability of the high-k dielectrics ${\mathrm{ZrO}}_2$ and ${\mathrm{HfO}}_2$ in contact with Si and ${\mathrm{SiO}}_2.$ The ${\mathrm{HfO}}_2/\mathrm{Si}$ interface is found to be stable with respect to formation of silicides whereas the ${\mathrm{ZrO}}_2/\mathrm{Si}$ interface is not. The ${\mathrm{metal–oxide/SiO}}_2$ interface is marginally unstable with respect to formation of silicates. Cross-sectional transmission electron micrographs expose formation of nodules, identified as silicides, across the polycrystalline ${\mathrm{silicon/ZrO}}_2/\mathrm{Si}$ interfaces but not for the interfaces with ${\mathrm{HfO}}_2.$ For both ${\mathrm{ZrO}}_2$ and ${\mathrm{HfO}}_2,$ the x-ray photoemission spectra illustrate formation of silicate-like compounds in the ${\mathrm{MO}}_2/{\mathrm{SiO}}_2$ interface.

The atomic structure, stability and electronic properties of zirconium and hafnium nitrides and oxynitrides ($M\mathrm{N}$ , $M_3{\mathrm{N}}_4$ , and $M_2{\mathrm{N}}_2\mathrm{O}$ ; $M=\mathrm{Zr}$ , Hf) have been studied using first-principles density functional theory calculations. It is found that the orthorhombic $Pnam$ structure of $M_3{\mathrm{N}}_4$ , which was observed experimentally for zirconium nitride, is more stable for this stoichiometry than the cubic spinel and rock-salt-type structures. The calculated band structures and electronic densities of states demonstrate that both the $M\mathrm{N}$ and $M_3{\mathrm{N}}_4$ phases of zirconium and hafnium nitrides in the rock-salt-type structure are characterized by metallic properties, while the orthorhombic structure of the $M_3{\mathrm{N}}_4$ phase exhibits an insulating behavior in agreement with experimental observations. The formation of nitrogen vacancies in the insulating $M_3{\mathrm{N}}_4$ phase converts it into the metallic $M\mathrm{N}$ phase. Calculations of ${\mathrm{Zr}}_2{\mathrm{N}}_2\mathrm{O}$ and ${\mathrm{Hf}}_2{\mathrm{N}}_2\mathrm{O}$ in the cubic Bixbyite-type and hexagonal P3–ml crystal structures predict that these materials are insulators and that the Bixbyite-type structure found experimentally is lower in energy than the P3–ml phase.

Band-gap engineering using SiGe channels to reduce the threshold voltage (V _TH ) in p-channel MOSFETs has enabled a simplified gate-first high-κ/metal gate (HKMG) CMOS integration flow. Integrating Silicon-Germanium channels (cSiGe) on silicon wafers for SOC applications has unique challenges like the oxidation rate differential with silicon, defectivity and interface state density in the unoptimized state, and concerns with T _inv scalability. In overcoming these challenges, we show that we can leverage the superior mobility, low threshold voltage and NBTI of cSiGe channels in high-performance (HP) and low power (LP) HKMG CMOS logic MOSFETs with multiple oxides utilizing dual channels for nFET and pFET.

We present a fully-integrated SOI CMOS 22nm technology for a diverse array of high-performance applications including server microprocessors, memory controllers and ASICs. A pre-doped substrate enables scaling of this third generation of SOI deep-trench-based embedded DRAM for a dense high-performance memory hierarchy. Dual-Embedded stressor technology including SiGe and Si:C for improved carrier mobility in both PMOS and NMOS FETs is presented for the first time. A hierarchical BEOL with 15 levels of copper interconnect including self-aligned via processing delivers high performance with exceptional reliability.