Radical Enhanced Atomic Layer Deposition of Tantalum Oxide

Tantalum oxide was deposited by radical enhanced atomic layer deposition using tantalum ethoxide and oxygen radicals. The radicals were produced by dissociating oxygen gas in a remote microwave plasma discharge. Argon was used as the carrier and purge gas. The films were deposited at 150 and 250°C on glass, silicon, and platinum substrates. Growth rate of the films was 0.19 nm per cycle with a 0.6 s pulse length for tantalum ethoxide and 3 s for oxygen radicals. The films were amorphous according to X-ray diffraction. The densities measured by X-ray reflectivity were between 7.1 and 7.6 g/cm3 for films grown both at 150 and 250°C. The dielectric constants were 28 and 36 for films grown on platinum electrodes at 150 and 250 °C, respectively. The leakage current densities at 1 MV/cm electric field were less than 1 x 10-8 A/cm2 for both deposition temperatures. The effect of water as an additional oxidant was studied at 250 °C. The water was supplied as a separate pulse either right before or after the tantalum ethoxide pulse.