Interfacial Reactions & Stability of High K Dielectrics & Metals

Integration of the "new" materials associated with advanced CMOS gate stack processes presents formidable challenges. This tutorial will discuss the issues associated with the integration of various high-k gate dielectric and metal gate materials candidates in view of research over the last decade. Topics will include a survey of the materials candidates, interfacial reactions, stability and interdiffusion of film constituents, Fermi Level pinning effects, impact on mobility, and more.

Robert M. Wallace was born in Pittsburgh, PA in 1960. He received the B.S. (1982), the M.S. (1984) and the Ph.D. (1988) in Physics at the University of Pittsburgh. He then was a postdoctoral research associate in Chemistry at the Pittsburgh Surface Science Center. In 1990, he joined Texas Instruments Central Research Laboratories as a Member of Technical Staff (MTS) in the Materials Characterization Branch of the Materials Science Laboratory, and was elected as a Senior MTS in 1996. Dr. Wallace was then appointed in 1997 to manage the Advanced Technology branch that focused on advanced device concepts and the associated material integration issues. In May 1999, he joined the faculty at the University of North Texas as a Professor of Materials Science and director of the Laboratory for Electronic Materials and Devices. He has most recently joined the faculty in the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Texas at Dallas as a Professor of Electrical Engineering and Physics. He has over 60 publications in peer reviewed journals and 50 US and international patents. He is a member of the Applied Surface Science and the Electronic Materials and Processing divisions in the AVS, and a member of the Materials Research Society. He is also a senior member of the IEEE and serves on the Executive Committee of the IEEE Semiconductor Interface Specialists Conference. His interests include materials and integration issues for advanced devices including gate dielectrics, gate electrodes as well as materials for display technologies.