Electrical characteristics of high quality La₂O₃ gate dielectric with equivalent oxide thickness of 5 angstrom

Electrical and reliability properties of ultrathin La₂O₃ gate dielectric have been investigated. The measured capacitance of 33 angstrom La₂O₃ gate dielectric is 7.2 μF/cm² that gives an effective K value of 27 and an equivalent oxide thickness of 4.8 angstrom. Good dielectric integrity is evidenced from the low leakage current density of 0.06 A/cm² at -1 V, high effective breakdown field of 13.5 MV/cm, low interface-trap density of 3 × 10¹⁰ eV^-1/cm², and excellent reliability with more than 10 years lifetime even at 2 V bias. In addition to high K, these dielectric properties are very close to conventional thermal SiO₂.