ENHANCING INTERFACE CHARACTERISTICS BETWEEN A CHANNEL SEMICONDUCTOR ALLOY AND A GATE DIELECTRIC BY AN OXIDATION PROCESS

摘要

In sophisticated transistor elements, long-term threshold voltage shifts in transistors comprising a threshold adjusting semiconductor alloy may be reduced by reducing the roughness of an interface formed between the threshold adjusting semiconductor material and the gate dielectric material. To this end, a portion of the threshold adjusting semiconductor material may be oxidized and may be removed prior to forming the high-k dielectric material.