Deposition of extremely thin (Ba,Sr)TiO3 thin films for ultra-large-scale integrated dynamic random access memory application

(Ba,Sr)TiO3 (BST) thin films with thicknesses ranging from 15 to 50 nm are prepared by a rf magnetron sputtering on Pt/SiO2/Si substrates. The dielectric constants of BST thin films increase with increasing deposition temperature and thicknesses. The leakage current increases with increasing deposition temperature and this prevents the deposition temperature of the 20 nm thick BST thin film from being increased to a value more than 640 °C. The leakage current is also critically dependent upon the postannealing temperature and atmosphere after the top electrode fabrication. The dielectric constant increases with increasing postannealing temperature which further reduces the SiO2 equivalent thicknesses of the BST thin films. A 20 nm thick BST thin film deposited at 640 °C and postannealed at 750 °C under N2 atmosphere for 30 min, shows a SiO2 equivalent thickness of 0.24 nm, dielectric dissipation factor less than 1%, and leakage current of about 40 nA/cm2 at ∓1.5 V.