HKMG
HKMG stands for high-k metal gate, a technology used in CMOS semiconductor fabrication to replace the traditional silicon dioxide gate dielectric and polycrystalline silicon gate with a high-permittivity dielectric and a metal gate. The high-k dielectric allows a physically thicker oxide while preserving gate capacitance, which reduces leakage current and supports continued device scaling. The metal gate replaces poly-Si gates to improve threshold voltage control and eliminate poly-silicon gate depletion effects.
Typical high-k materials used in HKMG include hafnium oxide (HfO2) and zirconium oxide (ZrO2), while common metal
The transition to HKMG became essential around the 45-nanometer technology node and has since been adopted
Reliability considerations for HKMG include bias temperature instability, charge trapping, and interface state management, which have