Ferroelectric intergrated circuit with protective layer incorporating oxygen and method for fabricating same

摘要

A protective layer(130, 135, 160) in a ferroelectric integrated circuit contains small amounts of oxygen to protect ferroelectric oxide material against hydrogen degradation during the fabrication process. Typically, the protective layer (130, 135) is a hydrogen diffusion barrier layer formed to cover a thin film of ferroelectric oxide material (124). In one method, a small amount of oxygen is included in the sputter atmosphere during deposition of a hydrogen diffusion barrier (130, 135) or a metallized wiring layer (160). The oxygen forms oxides that inhibit diffusion of hydrogen towards the ferroelectric oxide material. The oxygen forms a concentration gradient so that the oxygen concentration in the interior of the protective layer is zero, and the oxygen concentration near the surfaces of the layer is about two weight percent.