Diffusion and Gate Replacement: A New Gate-First High- $k$ /Metal Gate CMOS Integration Scheme Suppressing Gate Height Asymmetry

In this paper, a new scheme called diffusion and gate replacement (D&GR) metal-inserted polysilicon integration is demonstrated. The CMOS flow allows controlling the gate height asymmetry between the nMOS and the pMOS by driving the work function shifter directly into the high-
$k$
, and then by removing the dopant source (dummy doped metal gate) and depositing a fresh TiN metal gate. Although the integration flow is compatible with a standard 45-/28-nm technological node, it has been specifically designed to be compatible with dynamic random access memory peripheral applications or other emerging memories (embedded applications). A material down-selection is done (TiN/Mg/TiN gate-stack for nMOS and Al
₂
O
₃
capping layer for pMOS), and it is demonstrated that a process window exists and guarantees enough work function lowering without compromising the electrical parameters (electrical oxide thickness, mobility, subthreshold slope, and gate leakage). Regarding the CMOS integration, it is shown that an nMOS-first integration is preferable, and that there is no contamination issue of the pMOS work function shifter (in this case, Al
₂
O
₃
) on the nMOS side. Finally, CMOS device performance is on par with the non-D&GR baseline, validating the integration flow.