Room Temperature Deposition of High Dielectric Constant, High Density Ceramic Thin Films

ABSTRACTFuture high-performance integrated circuits and electronic packaging technology require the integration of many passive components, including high storage capacitors, on the systems. Because of the low melting temperature metal lines and polymer dielectrics in these electronic systems, one cannot employ most of the existing high temperature deposition techniques to grow thin film components. In this paper, we will report our recent work on the room temperature deposition of amorphous ceramic thin films, including BaxTi 2−xOy and SiOx, using the newly developed partially ionized beam technique. This technique utilizes a small percent (<3%) of selfions derived from the depositing materials to bombard the surface growth front during deposition. It is shown that a dramatic control of the density (and therefore the leakage current) and uniformity of the film can be achieved using this deposition technique without post annealing. Al or Cu was used as the electrodes in our multilayer MIM (metal-insulator-metal) test structure. As deposited thin film capacitors with a capacitance ranging from 25 to 100 nF/cm 2 have been fabricated with tan δ <0.01, leakage current of <l.μA/cm2 at 0.5 MV/cm, and breakdown field strength of several MV/cm. These ceramic capacitors do not show any dispersion up to 1 GHz.