Study of aluminum and gold as the gate electrode material on silicon nitride based MIS devices

In order to study the role of aluminum and gold as the gate electrode mater ial, we have deposited silicon nitride films onto p-type silicon substrates via r.f. glow-discharge deposition and have fabricated metal-insulator-sem iconductor (MIS) devices on these films using aluminum or gold as the top e lectrode material. Considerable penetration of aluminum gate material into our silicon nitride films is observed. The resulting decrease of the effect ive thickness of the MIS devices have led to tunneling in these films. Howe ver, no appreciable penetration of gold gate material is observed. Our stud y demonstrates clearly that gold is superior to aluminum as the gate electr ode material in MIS devices for being suitable even when poor quality silic on nitride films are used as insulator in MIS devices. (C) 2001 Elsevier Sc ience B.V. All rights reserved.