1. A method of forming a semiconductor device, comprising:
forming a dielectric layer having a desired thickness on a surface of a substrate;
disposing an amount of a first material within the dielectric layer to form a first concentration gradient through at least a portion of the thickness of the formed dielectric layer;
disposing an amount of a second material within the dielectric layer to form a second concentration gradient through at least a portion of the thickness of the formed dielectric layer; and
depositing a third material over the dielectric layer.
2. The method of claim 1, further comprising annealing the substrate at a temperature between about 800\xb0 C. and about 1100\xb0 C.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein the thickness of the dielectric layer is less than about 40 Angstroms.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein first material is disposed within the dielectric layer using a low energy sputtering process, wherein the low energy sputtering process comprises providing an RF energy at a first RF frequency and a first RF power to a processing region of a low energy sputtering chamber so that a first material of a target can be disposed within the dielectric layer.
5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first material and the second material are selected from a group consisting of aluminum, zirconium, titanium, hafnium, lanthanum, strontium, lead, yttrium, and barium.
6. The method of claim 1, wherein the dielectric layer contains at least one material selected from a group consisting of silicon dioxide, hafnium oxide, zirconium oxide, hafnium silicate oxides, hafnium aluminate, hafnium lanthanum oxides, lanthanum oxides, and aluminum oxide.
7. The method of claim 1, wherein
the first material is hafnium and the concentration of the first material in the dielectric layer is less than about 30 atomic percent, and
the second material is lanthanum or aluminum that has a concentration less than about 10 atomic percent in the dielectric layer.
8. The method of claim 5, further comprising exposing the dielectric layer, the first material, the second material, and the fourth material to an oxidizing environment, wherein the oxidizing environment using a thermal oxidation process or a plasma oxidation process.
9. The method of claim 1, wherein the third material contains a material selected from a group consisting of polysilicon, tantalum, tantalum nitride, tantalum carbide, tantalum carbon nitride, tungsten, tungsten nitride, tantalum silicon nitride, hafnium, aluminum, platinum, ruthenium, cobalt, titanium, nickel, and titanium nitride.
10. The method of claim 1, wherein the low energy sputtering process comprises:
pulsing the RF energy delivered from an RF generator at a first frequency; and
pulsing a DC voltage delivered to the target from a DC source assembly; and
synchronizing the pulsed RF energy and the pulsed DC voltage using a system controller.
11. The method of claim 1, further comprising exposing the surface of the substrate to an RF plasma comprising nitrogen prior to forming the dielectric layer.
12. A method of forming a semiconductor device, comprising:
forming a silicon containing dielectric layer having a desired thickness on a surface of a substrate;
forming a high-k dielectric layer having a desired thickness over the silicon containing dielectric layer;
disposing an amount of a first material within the high-k dielectric layer to form a concentration gradient through at least a portion of the thickness of the formed high-k dielectric layer, wherein the second material is selected from a group of materials comprising hafnium, lanthanum, aluminum, titanium, zirconium, strontium, lead, yttrium, and barium;
disposing an amount of a second material within the dielectric layer to form a second concentration gradient through at least a portion of the thickness of the formed high-k dielectric layer, wherein the second material is selected from a group of materials comprising hafnium, lanthanum, aluminum, titanium, zirconium, strontium, lead, yttrium, and barium; and
depositing a gate electrode material over the high-k dielectric layer, the first material, and the second material.
13. The method of claim 12, further comprising annealing the substrate at a temperature between about 800\xb0 C. and about 1100\xb0 C.
14. The method of claim 12, wherein the high-k dielectric layer contains a material selected from a group consisting of hafnium oxide, zirconium oxide, hafnium silicate oxides, hafnium aluminate, hafnium lanthanum oxides, lanthanum oxides, and aluminum oxide.
15. The method of claim 12, further comprising exposing the surface of the substrate or the formed silicon containing dielectric layer to an RF plasma comprising nitrogen.
16. The method of claim 12, wherein the combined thickness of the silicon containing dielectric layer and the high-k dielectric layer is less than about 40 Angstroms.
17. The method of claim 12, wherein the first material is hafnium and the concentration of the first material in the dielectric layer is less than about 30 atomic percent.
18. The method of claim 12, wherein the first material is lanthanum or hafnium that has a concentration less than about 10 atomic percent or the second material is aluminum that has a concentration less than about 10 atomic percent.
19. The method of claim 12, further comprising exposing the first material and the second material to an oxidizing environment, wherein the oxidizing environment using a thermal oxidation process or a plasma oxidation process.
20. The method of claim 12, wherein the gate electrode material contains a material selected from a group consisting of polysilicon, tantalum, tantalum nitride, tantalum carbon nitride, tantalum carbide, tungsten, tungsten nitride, tantalum silicon nitride, hafnium, aluminum, platinum, ruthenium, cobalt, titanium, nickel, and titanium nitride.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. In a telephonic communication system having at least one communication device for interconnection with a telephone network via at least two communication media, the improvement comprising:
means for coupling the at least one communication device with the at least two communication media and means for individually determining the availability of each of the at least two communication media;
means responsive to the determining means connected to the coupling means for automatically interconnecting the at least one communication device with the telephone network via the available one of the communication media.
2. The telephonic communication system of claim 1 in which the at least one communication device is capable of direct connection with a telephone network via only one of the two communication media.
3. The telephonic communication system of claim 1 in which one of the communication media is a landline telephone service.
4. The telephonic communication system of claim 1 in which the other of the communication media is a wireless telephone service.
5. The telephonic communication system of claim 3 in which the at least on communication device is capable of direct connection with a telephone network via only the landline telephone service.
6. The telephonic communication system of claim 1 including at least two communication devices and in which the coupling means concurrently interconnects one of the communication devices with one of the communication media and the other of the communication devices with the other of the communication media.
7. In a communication system having first and second communication paths and at least one telephonic type communication device, the system being coupled to at least two communication networks for providing a first and second means of communication, said first means of communication coupled to the first communication path, and the communication system having at least one means for coupling the at least one telephonic communication type device to said first communication path, the improvement being:
means between said at least one telephonic type communication device and said coupling means for connecting said telephonic type communication device to said second communication path; and
switching means coupled to said second communication path and to said first and second means of communication for selectively coupling said second communication path to one of said first and second means of communication.
8. A communication switching system as described in claim 7 wherein said first communication system is a wireline telephone line and said second communication system is a wireless means of communication.
9. A communication switching system as described in claim 7 wherein said second communication system is a cellular means of communication.
10. In a communication system having a communication path and at least one telephonic type communication device, the communication system being coupled to a communication network for providing a means of communication, and the communication system having at least one telephonic communication type device coupled to said communication path, the improvement being:
testing means coupled to said communication path for testing the presence of any signal thereon; and
interface means coupled to said communication path and said testing means and being responsive to said testing means for coupling said communication path to said communication network.
11. A communication system comprising:
a cellular type interface coupled between a cellular-type transceiver and a six position telephone jack coupling means with at least four positions having individual conductors coupled thereto;
a telephonic type device coupled to at least two of said individual conductors; and
means coupled between said telephonic type device and said six position telephone jack coupling means for inverting the position of at least two of said individual conductors to the position of two of the other individual conductors.