At today's VLSI Symposium, IMEC
reports an improved performance for its planar CMOS using hafnium-based high-k
dielectrics and tantalum-based metal gates for the 32nm CMOS node. The inverter
delay advanced from 15ps to 10ps. IMEC also simplified its high-k/metal gate
process by decreasing the number of process steps from 15 to 9.
High-performance (low-Vt) high-k/metal-gate CMOS has recently been achieved
by applying a thin dielectric cap between the gate dielectric and metal
gate. Both gate-first and gate-last integration schemes have proven to be
successful. While the gate-last scheme is now introduced in production for
high-performance products, the gate-first option remains attractive for
low-cost applications if its complexity can be reduced to the standard CMOS
process flow. One of the possibilities for gate first is a dual-metal
dual-dielectric process flow using mostly hard masks to pattern nMOS and
pMOS regions selectively.
By applying conventional stress boosters to its gate-first dual-metal
dual-dielectric high-k/metal gate CMOS, IMEC increased the performance of
nMOS and pMOS transistors with 16% and 11% respectively. This results in an
inverter delay improved from 15ps to 10ps. For the first time, the
compatibility of conventional stress memorization techniques with
high-k/metal gate has been demonstrated.
Also, IMEC has simplified the process complexity from dual-metal
dual-dielectric to single-metal dual-dielectric by using soft-mask processes
and wet removal chemistry. The process reduces the complexity by 40% or 6
steps compared to dual-metal dual-dielectric. It also allows simpler
gate-etch profile control and it offers better prospects for scaling.
And IMEC proved that the use of La and Dy capping layers do not show any
reliability issues.
These results were obtained in collaboration with IMEC's sub-32nm CMOS
partners including Intel, Micron, Panasonic, Qimonda, Samsung, TSMC, NXP,
Elpida, Hynix, Powerchip, Infineon, TI, ST Microelectronics.