Reliability Characteristics of a High Density Metal- Insulator-Metal Capacitor on Intel’s 10+ Process

We present a high density MIM decoupling capacitor that enables improved microprocessor performance by providing robust on-chip power supply droop reduction. The MIM dielectric is fabricated using ALD-deposited HfO<inf>2</inf>-Al<inf>2</inf>O<inf>3</inf> and HfO<inf>2</inf>-ZrO<inf>2</inf> high-k dielectrics with PVD TiN electrodes. We achieve single MIM-cap densities of 37 fF/μm<sup>2</sup> and 52 fF/μm<sup>2</sup> that meet reliability requirement for both 1.98 V and 1.26 V use conditions. The reliability of the HfO<inf>2</inf>-ZrO<inf>2</inf> capacitor shows minimal voltage polarity dependence, which enables the use of multi-plate MIM-caps to increase capacitance density. We achieved a capacitance density of 141 fF/μm<sup>2</sup> with a four-plate configuration, representing a 3.5× improvement over the reported capacitance density on Intel’s 14 nm process. In addition, the stack meets environmental stress tests. This MIM- cap improves the on-chip power delivery network, leading to an increase in maximum frequency of microprocessors and is now shipping in volume.

[1]  T. Ando,et al.  CMOS compatible MIM decoupling capacitor with reliable sub-nm EOT high-k stacks for the 7 nm node and beyond , 2016, 2016 IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM).

[2]  C. Auth,et al.  A 22nm high performance and low-power CMOS technology featuring fully-depleted tri-gate transistors, self-aligned contacts and high density MIM capacitors , 2012, 2012 Symposium on VLSI Technology (VLSIT).

[3]  Robert Fox,et al.  Robust BEOL MIMCAP for Long and Controllable TDDB Lifetime , 2019, 2019 IEEE International Reliability Physics Symposium (IRPS).

[4]  S. Natarajan,et al.  Low-k interconnect stack with multi-layer air gap and tri-metal-insulator-metal capacitors for 14nm high volume manufacturing , 2015, 2015 IEEE International Interconnect Technology Conference and 2015 IEEE Materials for Advanced Metallization Conference (IITC/MAM).

[5]  E. Harari.  Dielectric breakdown in electrically stressed thin films of thermal SiO2 , 1978 .

[6]  N. Seifert,et al.  A Reliability Overview of Intel’s 10+ Logic Technology , 2020, 2020 IEEE International Reliability Physics Symposium (IRPS).