Effects of high‐pressure H ₂ and D ₂ post‐metallization annealing on the electrical properties of HfO ₂ /Si _0.7 Ge _0.3

High‐pressure annealing (HPA) in both hydrogen (H 2 ) and deuterium (D 2 ) environments is attempted on HfO 2 /Si 0.7 Ge 0.3 capacitors as a post‐metallization annealing (PMA) approach. As compared with conventional forming gas annealing (FGA), a dramatic reduction in the interface state density ( D it ) is achieved after both H 2 ‐ and D 2 ‐HPA processes at the equivalent temperature (300 °C) and time (30 min) by effectively passivating the Ge‐induced dangling bonds at the interface region. Meanwhile, the stress‐induced leakage current characteristics are only improved by the D 2 ‐HPA process, indicating that D‐passivation is more resistant to external electrical stress than H‐passivation. As the PMA temperature increases to 500 °C, both HPA further decreases the D it , but a significant increase is observed for FGA. In addition, the PMA temperature‐dependent degradation of leakage current is less in HPA than in FGA.