Improved Stability With Atomic-Layer-Deposited Encapsulation on Atomic-Layer In2O3 Transistors by Reliability Characterization

Ultrathin In2O3 and other recently explored low-thermal-budget ultrathin oxide semiconductors have shown great promise for back-end-of-line (BEOL)-compatible logic layers and monolithic 3-D (M3-D) integration. However, the long-term stability and reliability of these defect-rich atomically thin channels have not been intensively explored yet. Here, we present a study of the long-term reliability of transistors with 1.2-nm-thick atomic-layer-deposited (ALD)-grown In2O3 channels by room-temperature positive bias instability (PBI) and negative bias instability (NBI) experiments. The observed behavior can be largely explained by a trap neutrality level (TNL) model. A route to reduce the parameter drift has been developed using encapsulation in sequence with
${V}_{T}$
engineering by an O2 plasma treatment. After treatment, the magnitude of long-term
${V}_{T}$
shift is reduced for both positive and negative gate bias stresses, and for negative bias stress, other transistor parameters are stabilized as well. In all cases, the subthreshold swing (SS) does not change over time, suggesting that stress-induced interface defects form far below the conduction band, if at all.