Examining the Role of Hydrogen in the Electrical Performance of in situ Fabricated Metal-Insulator-Metal Trilayers Using an Atomic Layer Deposited Al2O3 Dielectric

Defects in electronic devices can lead to poor performance and device failure. We used deuterium doping to investigate the source of hydrogen defects in Atomic Layer Deposited (ALD) Al₂O₃ films and in situ fabrication techniques to produce ultraclean metal-insulator-metal trilayers. We compare leakage current and defect density of ALD Al₂O₃ dielectrics deposited using different oxidation conditions. The plasma O₂ ALD process has lowest number of entrained defects and exhibits a leakage current 10⁴ times lower than the thermal ALD process. Deuterium doping during the ALD process shows that the majority of the hydrogen defects contained in the ALD films are due to entrained water.