In this work, Ge p-MOS capacitors with HfTiON gate dielectric were fabricated by sputtering method. Pre-deposition fluorine plasma treatment and post-deposition fluorine plasma annealing were used to improve the electrical and reliability properties of Ge p-MOS capacitors. Experimental results showed that both methods could improve the interface quality with lower interface-state density, less frequency dispersion, and also enhance the reliability properties with smaller increases of oxide charge and gate leakage after high-field stressing. Compared with pre-deposition fluorine-plasma treatment, post-deposition fluorine plasma annealing achieved higher quality of high-k/Ge interface such as lower interface-state density, higher dielectric constant and lower stress-induced gate leakage current. By XPS and AFM analyses, the improvements should be due to the passivation effects of fluorine on oxygen vacancies, dangling bonds and the dielectric surface. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.