Ferroelectric materials and more particularly cerium-doped ferroelectric materials and related devices and methods are disclosed. Aspects of the present disclosure relate to ferroelectric layers of hafnium-zirconium-oxide (HZO) doped with cerium that enable reliable ferroelectric fabrication processes and related structures with significantly improved cycling endurance performance. Such doping in ferroelectric layers also provides the capability to modulate polarization to achieve a desired operation voltage range. Doping concentrations of cerium in HZO films are disclosed with ranges that provide a stabilized polar orthorhombic phase in resulting films, thereby promoting ferroelectric capabilities. Exemplary fabrication techniques for doping cerium in HZO films as well as exemplary device structures including metal-ferroelectric-metal (MFM) and metal-ferroelectric-insulator-semiconductor (MFIS) structures are also disclosed.

Provided are dielectric thin-film structures and electronic devices including the same. The dielectric thin-film structure includes a substrate, and a dielectric layer provided on the substrate. The dielectric layer including a tetragonal crystal structure, and crystal grains including a proportion of the crystal grains preferentially oriented such that at least one of a <hk0>, <h00>, or <0k0> direction of a crystal lattice is parallel to or forms an angle of less than 45 degrees an out-of-plane orientation.

The present disclosure describes epitaxial oxide high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs). In some embodiments, a HEMT comprises: a substrate; a first epitaxial semiconductor layer on the substrate; and a second epitaxial semiconductor layer on the first epitaxial semiconductor layer. The first epitaxial semiconductor layer can comprise a first oxide material, wherein the first oxide material can comprise a first polar material with an orthorhombic, tetragonal or trigonal crystal symmetry, and wherein the first oxide material can comprise a first conductivity type formed via polarization. The second epitaxial semiconductor layer can comprise a second oxide material.

An integrated circuit device according may include a plurality of gate structures embedded in a substrate, a direct contact on the substrate between the plurality of gate structures, and a bit line electrode layer on the direct contact. The bit line electrode layer has a thickness of about 10 nm to 30 nm. The bit line electrode layer may include a molybdenum tungsten (MoW) alloy including molybdenum (Mo) a range of about 25 at % to about 75 at %.

A semiconductor structure includes a substrate and a gate stack structure located on the substrate. The gate stack structure includes: a high-K dielectric layer, a first barrier layer in contact with the high-K dielectric layer, a work function layer located on a side of the high-K dielectric layer away from the substrate, and a gate electrode layer located on a side of the work function layer away from the substrate. The first barrier layer contains the same metal element as the high-K dielectric layer.

A structure and formation method of a semiconductor device is provided. The semiconductor device structure includes an epitaxial structure over a semiconductor substrate. The semiconductor device structure also includes a dielectric fin over the semiconductor substrate. The dielectric fin extends upwards to exceed a bottom surface of the epitaxial structure. The dielectric fin has a dielectric structure and a protective shell, and the protective shell extends along sidewalls and a bottom of the dielectric structure. The protective shell has a first average grain size, and the dielectric structure has a second average grain size. The first average grain size is larger than the second average grain size.

IC die and/or IC die packages including capacitors with a pyrochlore-based insulator material. The pyrochlore-based insulator material comprises a compound of a species A and a species B, each comprising one or more rare earths or metals. In the pyrochlore-based insulator material, oxygen content is advantageously more than three times and less than four times the amount of either of species A or B with crystalline pyrochlore phases having the composition A.sub.2B.sub.2O.sub.7. Within a capacitor, the pyrochlore-based insulator may be amorphous and/or may have one or more crystalline phases. The pyrochlore-based insulator has an exceedingly high relative permittivity of 50-100, or more. The pyrochlore-based insulator material may be deposited at low temperatures compatible with interconnect metallization processes practiced in IC die manufacture as well as IC die packaging.

The invention provides a process for forming crack-free dielectric films on a substrate. The process comprises the application of a dielectric precursor layer of a thickness from about 0.3 μm to about 1.0 μm to a substrate. The deposition is followed by low temperature heat pretreatment, prepyrolysis, pyrolysis and crystallization step for each layer. The deposition, heat pretreatment, prepyrolysis, pyrolysis and crystallization are repeated until the dielectric film forms an overall thickness of from about 1.5 μm to about 20.0 μm and providing a final crystallization treatment to form a thick dielectric film. The process provides a thick crack-free dielectric film on a substrate, the dielectric forming a dense thick crack-free dielectric having an overall dielectric thickness of from about 1.5 μm to about 20.0 μm.

A semiconductor device includes: a first semiconductor layer formed, on a substrate, of a nitride semiconductor; a second semiconductor layer formed, on the first semiconductor layer, of a nitride semiconductor; a source electrode formed on the second semiconductor layer; a drain electrode formed on the second semiconductor layer; a metal oxide film formed, between the source electrode and the drain electrode, on the second semiconductor layer; and a gate electrode formed on the metal oxide film. The metal oxide film includes AlO.sub.x and InO.sub.x. AlO.sub.x/InO.sub.x in the metal oxide film is greater than or equal to 3.

A thin-film insulator comprises a first electrode over a substrate. A photo up-converting material is over the first electrode. A cured photo-imageable dielectric (PID) containing a high-k filler material is over the photo up-converting material, wherein the cured PID is less than 4 μm in thickness, and a second electrode is over the cured PID.