Reduction of leakage current in chemical-vapor-deposited Ta2O5 thin films by furnace N2O annealing

Abstract

In this brief, we present a post-deposition annealing technique that employs furnace annealing in N2O (FN2O) to reduce the leakage current of chemical-vapor-deposited tantalum penta-oxide (CVD Ta2O5) thin films, Compared with furnace annealing in O-2 (FO) and rapid thermal annealing in N2O (RTN2O), FN2O annealing proved to have the lowest leakage current and the most reliable time-dependent dielectric breakdown (TDDB).