High-k gate oxide for silicon heterostructure MOSFET devices

Very exciting and promising results from recent developments in group-IV alloy heterostructures (viz., SiGe, SiGeC, SiC, GeC and strained-Si) have led to the belief that SiGe-based devices will open up an entirely new dimension to the future of VLSI/ULSI technology. The growth of ultrathin dielectric films on a strained group-IV alloy layer is a challenging task. As metal-oxide-semiconductor devices are being aggressively scaled down, high permittivity dielectrics are being widely investigated as alternative gate insulating layers in advanced MOS devices. The present paper reviews the recent results of different gate and high-k dielectrics on group-IV alloy layers for scaled CMOS devices, high-mobility pure-Ge channel devices and nanocrystal floating gate memories.