Mixed-signal IC`s contain analog as well as digital circuits. The focus of analog circuits is shifting the frequency to higher and higher values due to the increasing performance of post-analog digital signal processing. However, difficulties to integrate analog and high-performance digital functions on a chip substantially increase with scaling. For example, analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog conversion performance becomes increasingly important (e.g. it will become a major issue to control analog performance parameters like mismatch and 1/f-noise). In that respect, MIM capacitors with integrated high-k dielectrics of high voltage linearity are very important in analog circuits to reduce the area of the capacitors and the coupling of high frequency noise from the digital to the analog circuit region of mixed-signal IC`s.
The aim of our work is to integrate new high-k materials into MIM capacitors and achieve high capacitance densities with leakage currents and voltage linearity values that fully meet the requirements of the actual International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors [3].
References
[1] F. Losee, RF systems, components and circuits handbook, Artech House, Boston, 1997.
[2] IHP-Microelectronics, Annual Report, 2004; S. Reynolds, ISSCC Dig. Tech. Papers, pp 442-443, February 2002; W. Winkler, IEEE Int. Solid-State
Circuits, pp. 454-455, February 2003.
[3] RF and Analog/Mixed-Signal Technologies for Wireless Communications, International Roadmap for Semiconductors 2006, www.itrs.net
[4] J. S. Dunn et al., IBM J. Res. & Dev. Vol. 47 (2003) 101- 139.