US Patent 7602030 - HfTaO nanolaminate dielectric

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7602030.html

In order to continue the scalability of transistors predicted by Moore's Law there is increased investigation in new materials for the gate dielectric. This patent from Micron Technology teaches a new dielctric film material of hafnium tantalum oxide having a relative dielectric constant of 16-26 (compared to 3.9 for SiO2). Claim 1 reads:

1. An electronic device comprising:

a substrate;

a dielectric layer disposed above substrate, the dielectric layer having a hafnium tantalum oxide layer, the hafnium tantalum oxide being a bimetal oxide (HfxTayOz x>0, y>0, z>0), the hafnium tantalum oxide layer structured as one or more monolayers; and

a conductive layer on and contacting the dielectric layer.