July 11, 2007 - Vesta Technology Inc. and SEMATECH's Advanced Technology Development Facility (ATDF) say they are touting a pair of technology achievements: a nondamaging process that allows deposition of plasma-enhanced TiN films at 30% lower temperatures than conventional methods, and a "super high-k" offering nearly twice the dielectric constant than HfO₂- and ZrO₂-based films.

The first finding is a process that allows plasma-enhanced titanium nitride films with no carbon to be deposited at temperatures up to 30% lower than conventional TiN deposition methods. Thus, they say, low-resistance electrodes and stable barrier metals can be made with 350°C processes -- e.g., producing nickel-silicide (NiSi) integrated devices and high-k gate stacks -- instead of using thermal films in a 550-600°C chemical-vapor deposition process, they note.

In another announcement, Vesta and ATDF tipped work with "super high-k" films which they claim have dielectric constant (after post-deposition annealing) nearly double that of films based on hafnium oxide (HfO₂) or zirconium oxide (ZrO₂. They say that combined with Vesta's atomic-layer deposition system, the "super-k" film can be used for existing 45nm DRAM capacitor designs, and also extend interpolysilicon flash memory structures to 45nm processes instead of using oxide-silicon nitride-silicon oxide films.

The companies say the "super-k" was developed in a collaboration spanning several months, with VESTA providing the starting material and ATDF setting performance specifications and helping develop appropriate test methods. Neither the actual material composition nor specific k-value of "super-k" were disclosed.

The two originally partnered in spring 2005 to build a R&D/demo site with broad capabilities for advanced work in film deposition, and plasma nitridation and oxidation.