Structural and electrical characterization of ALD grown HfO2 thin films

HfO2 films were grown on 4-inch native SiO2/Si wafers by Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) from tetrakis(dimethylamido)hafnium and deionized water in a Savannah S100 system. The temperature was varied from 100°C to 350°C in steps of 50 K. All other ALD process parameters were fixed. The resulting HfO2 layers were characterized in terms of thickness homogeneity, growth rate per cycle, surface roughness, crystal structure, stoichiometry, mass density, optical bandgap and index of refraction. Based on the obtained growth rate of HfO2 on SiO2/Si, 25 nm thick HfO2 layers were grown on Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si substrates for electrical characterization. Furthermore, the most important structural properties were compared for the growth of HfO2 on Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si and SiO2/Si substrates.
HfO2 breakdown voltages show a clear decrease with increasing growth temperature, which was correlated to the crystallinity of the films due to the preferred breakdown along grain boundaries. For resistive switching, an amorphous HfO2 layer grown at 150°C was compared to a crystalline one grown at 300°C. Furthermore, resistive switching characteristics were tuned by the use of two different top electrode materials, namely an inert Pt or a reactive Ti/Pt electrode. The contact diameter was 50 μm. In the majority of cases, the resistive switching mode was found to be unipolar. Only the combination of a crystalline HfO2 layer with an inert Pt bottom and a reactive Ti/Pt top electrode led to a “pseudo-bipolar” switching mode with a convertible SET and RESET polarity.