Current Transport Modeling in an Amorphous Silicon Antifuse Structure

Amerasekera, A.; Kwok, S. P.; Seitchik, J.A.

doi:10.1557/proc-297-999

Cited by 4 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…The breakdown of amorphous silicon devices was earlier investigated in diodes [6], or in an antifuse structure [7], where an evidence was found of impact ionization in a-Si. In the thin film transistors itself a huge amount of work and research was focused on metastable effects in amorphous silicon, but very little was published on the subject on electrical breakdown.…”

Section: A Theoretical Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of the electrical breakdown in hydrogenated amorphous silicon thin-film transistors

Golo

Kuper

Mouthaan

2002

IEEE Trans. Electron Devices

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Electrical breakdown induced by systematic electrostatic discharge (ESD) stress of thin-film transistors used as switches in active matrix addresses liquid crystal displays has been studied using electrical measurements, electrical simulations, electrothermal simulations, and postbreakdown observations. Breakdown due to very short pulses (up to 1 s) shows a clear dependence on the channel length. A hypothesis that electrical breakdown in the case of short channel TFTs is due to the punch-through is built on this dependence and is proved by means of electrical simulations. Further, the presence of avalanche breakdown in amorphous silicon thin-film transistors is simulated and confirmed. It is finally assumed that the breakdown is a thermal process. Three-dimensional (3-D) electrothermal simulations are performed in the static and transient regime, confirming the location of the breakdown spot within the TFT from the electrical simulations and postbreakdown observations.

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Section: A Theoretical Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of the electrical breakdown in hydrogenated amorphous silicon thin-film transistors

Golo

Kuper

Mouthaan

2002

IEEE Trans. Electron Devices

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“…Figure 11 shows that for devices with the same trap density, saturation current is independent of H:a-Si thickness when the current is measured at the same electric field. Inspection of equation (4) shows that this is the expected thickness scaling behavior for hopping conduction. In contrast, SCLC for a uniform trap distribution is given by [I 11 J = qpEn,, exp(&&E/N,tqkT),…”

Section: Hopping Conductionmentioning

confidence: 70%

“…The antifuse is a high field device, and the H:a-Si film is fully depleted at small biases [4]. Figure 2 shows that under highly accelerated voltage stress, the leakage current increases in time as a power law, and then saturates.…”

Section: Device Characteristicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Model for the leakage instability in unprogrammed amorphous silicon antifuse devices

Nicollian

Hunter

1995

33rd IEEE International Reliability Physics Symposium

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The leakage instability of hydrogenated amorphous silicon (H:a-Si) antifuse devices is one of the important reliability aspects of this new technology, because it determines the standby power for circuit applications. A physical model of the leakage instability is described. After highly accelerated voltage stress, the transport mechanism for the saturated state is shown to be hopping conduction through trap states near the Fermi level. Trap densities on the order of 1~1 0~~) eV ' cme3 can be induced through stress. This model can be used to facilitate antifuse technology development.

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“…The temperature increases until it reaches the melting temperature T melt of amorphous silicon which is approximately 1200ЊC. 8,[16][17][18] Upon melting, the electrical conductivity of an amorphous-silicon layer increases by several orders of magnitude. This condition initiates the switching mechanism which is seen in Fig.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Thermal Model for the Initiation of Programming in Metal‐to‐Metal Amorphous‐Silicon Antifuses

Vasudevan¹,

Massoud²,

Fair³

1999

J. Electrochem. Soc.

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An antifuse is a programmable element which normally resides in a high-resistance state called the "OFF-state." It can be switched into a low-resistance state called the "ON-state" by the application of a high-voltage pulse. [1][2][3] We have previously reported on the energy considerations during the growth of a molten filament in metalto-metal amorphous-silicon antifuses, 4 and on the ON-state reliability of amorphous-silicon antifuses. 5 In this paper, we present a thermal model for the initiation of programming in these antifuses.The antifuses studied in this work are located in the via between two metal layers. The bottom metal electrode is Al-Si-Cu/TiW and the top metal electrode is Ti/TiW/Al-Si-Cu. The via is circular with diameter ranging from 0.5 to 2 m. The amorphous-silicon layer is deposited by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) of SiH 4 at 400ЊC. The amorphous-silicon layer thickness ranges from 500 to 1500 Å. ExperimentalThe dependence of the current I af in the antifuse on the applied voltage V app is shown in Fig. 1. The amorphous-silicon antifuse is initially in the OFF-state. In this state, its resistance R OFF is on the order of several megaohms. It is programmed to a low-resistance state (ON-state) by applying a voltage across its electrode pads through a series resistance R ser . The voltage is applied using the HP4145B semiconductor parameter analyzer. The current through the antifuse is measured using the same HP4145B. The current at the initiation of programming is denoted by I pf and the corresponding voltage is V pf . The series resistance R ser controls the programming current I pp and the final ON-state resistance R ON . The resistance in the ON-state is on the order of 25 to 200 ⍀ and it depends on the programming conditions. 3,6,7 The programming voltage V pp and the series resistance R ser control the programming conditions. Without the series resistance, there is no control of the power dissipated in the antifuse during programming. 8 Programming under these conditions leads to a much lower ON-resistance as shown in Fig. 2. In this figure, seven devices were measured for each data point. In the case with no series resistance, the standard deviation ranged from a low value of 0.61 ⍀ to a high value of 0.88 ⍀. In the case where R ser ϭ 760 ⍀, the standard deviation of the antifuse ON-resistance ranged from a low value of 3.86 ⍀ to a high value of 7.05 ⍀.Before programming, the applied voltage appears entirely across the antifuse as R OFF >> R ser . In the ON-state, most of the voltage drop appears across the series resistance because R ON << R ser . This type of A thermal model for the initiation of programming in metal-to-metal amorphous-silicon antifuses is described. The current and field crowding at the edges of the via cause the temperature at the via corners to increase due to Joule heating. Programming is initiated when the temperature at the via edges reaches the melting temperature of amorphous silicon. The model presented in this work explains how the thickne...

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Current Transport Modeling in an Amorphous Silicon Antifuse Structure

Cited by 4 publications

References 6 publications

Analysis of the electrical breakdown in hydrogenated amorphous silicon thin-film transistors

Analysis of the electrical breakdown in hydrogenated amorphous silicon thin-film transistors

Model for the leakage instability in unprogrammed amorphous silicon antifuse devices

A Thermal Model for the Initiation of Programming in Metal‐to‐Metal Amorphous‐Silicon Antifuses

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