Stress engineering in high-κ FETs for mobility and on-current enhancements

We present a systematic study of uniaxial/biaxial stress effects on low-field mobility and on-current in high-κ n/pFETs. It is found that mobility enhancement by strain in high-κ FETs is smaller than SiO₂ FETs in low effective field because of remote Coulomb scattering caused by fixed charges inside high-κ films, while mobility enhancement by biaxial tensile strain in high-κ nFETs is greater than SiO₂ nFETs in high effective field due to weaker surface roughness scattering in high-κ nFETs. In short-channel high-κ nFETs, better on-current improvement by biaxial tensile strain than in SiO₂ nFETs is achieved as a result of both higher mobility enhancement and weaker velocity saturation. The optimum stress design for high-κ n/pFETs is also discussed, and it is concluded that the application of transverse tensile stress, in addition to conventional longitudinal stress, is essential for performance improvement of high-κ n/pFETs.