High-performance high-κ/metal gates for 45nm CMOS and beyond with gate-first processing

Abstract

Gate-first integration of band-edge (BE) high-κ/metal gate nFET devices with dual stress liners and silicon-on-insulator substrates for the 45nm node and beyond is presented. We show the first reported demonstration of improved short channel control with high-κ/metal gates (HK/MG) enabled by the thinnest Tinv (<12Å) for BE nFET devices to-date, consistent with simulations showing the need for <14Å Tinv at Lgate<35nm. We report the highest BE HK/MG nFET Idsat values at 1.0V operation. We also show for the first time BE high-κ/metal gate pFET's fabricated with gate-first high thermal budget processing with thin T inv (<13Å) and low Vts appropriate for pFET devices. The reliability in these devices was found to be consistent with technology requirements. Integration of high-κ/metal gate nFET's into CMOS devices yielded large SRAM arrays.