High-density MIM capacitors with HfO2 dielectrics

Metal-insulator-metal (MIM) capacitors with high-k HfO2 dielectrics were fabricated and investigated. Experimental results show low leakage current densities of similar to5 x 10(-9) A/cm(2) and high capacitance density of similar to3.4 fF/mum(2) at 100 kHz in the MIM capacitors. The temperature coefficient and frequency dispersion effect for these MIM capacitors were very small. Different metal electrodes like tantalum, aluminum and copper were also investigated and compared. Finally, the mechanism of electrical transport was extracted for the HfO2 MIM capacitors to be Poole-Frenkel-type conduction mechanism. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.