Tanaka Kikinzoku Kogyo, a Tanaka Precious Metals’ company, had succeeded in developing a ruthenium material that can be utilized to form a film with the normal depth up to six times for capacitor electrodes utilized in DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory), a semiconductor memory. The company worked along with Seiji Ogo, Professor of the Graduate School of Engineering Department of Applied Chemistry from Kyushu University, to develop the ruthenium material.
Tanaka has introduced MOCVD (Metalorganic Chemical Vapor Deposition) that can be put to use in technology for the reduction of next-generation DRAM. The company is planning to commercialize the ruthenium material in 2012.
The ruthenium material, a MOCVD film formation material (precursor), is utilized in next-generation DRAM along with a circuit of 20 nm and can create a similar ruthenium film within fine pores with a ratio of 40:1. This allows the production of capacitor electrodes with up to six times the regular depth. The manufacturers of semiconductor are planning to produce next-generation semiconductors in huge volume during 2012 in the 20-nm range. The manufacture of capacitor electrodes, by utilizing the ruthenium precursor, can aid miniaturization in the production of 20 nm.
Semiconductor manufacturers are planning to select manufacturing methods that form memory cells to provide a 3D structure to capacitor electrodes. MOCVD is likely to be used as a manufacturing method for 3Delectrodes. The high aspect ratio of pores that make electrode film formed by standard MOCVD ruthenium precursors was 6:1. However, a technical challenge faced by the manufacturers is the incapability to produce capacitor electrodes having the high aspect ratio needed for the 20-nm generation and later.
Metallo-organic complexes, which can be easily evaporated than normal metal, are utilized in MOCVD film materials. The ruthenium precursor, formed by Tanaka Kikinzoku Kogyo, is a metallo-organic complex composed of a metallic element (Ruthenium) and organic compounds (Carbonyl and Cyclooctatetraene). It contains a high vapor pressure and easily vaporizes. A ruthenium film can be formed at the low temperature of 165°C with a high aspect ratio of 40:1. It can be developed in a hydrogen atmosphere.
The development results of this ruthenium precursor will appear in Dalton Transactions, which is published by the UK’s Royal Society of Chemistry.