A new EOT shrinking mechanism in TiN/HfLaON HKMG MOSFET: Experimental and ab-initio study

Dramatic EOT shrinking and Vfb increasing were observed when implanting Ga ions into high-k/metal-gate stack. Experiments with different gate-metal thickness, dosages, ion types, and post gate-etch anneal conditions were studied. Elastic dipole theory, for the first time, is proposed and ab-initio simulations were conducted to explain the unexpected trends. This theory offers a good guide to choose plug-in materials for high-k/metal-gate optimization.