Mechanism for stress-induced leakage currents in thin silicon dioxide films

Abstract

Leakage currents introduced in the low-field, direct-tunneling regime of thin oxides during high-field stress are related to defects produced by hot-electron transport in the oxide layer. From these studies, it is concluded that the "generation" of neutral electron traps in thin oxides is the dominant cause of this phenomenon. Other mechanisms due to anode hole injection or oxide nonuniformities are shown to be unrealistic for producing these currents. Exposure of thin oxides to atomic hydrogen from a remote plasma is shown to cause leakage currents similar to those observed after high-field stress, supporting the conclusion that these currents are related to hydrogen-induced defects.

Metal nanolayer formed by tunnelling current through thin oxide in the electrolyte–oxide–silicon system

“…The EMOS device shows characteristics similar to those of the MOS device (see the red circle in Figure 4a). However, the current-voltage characteristics of the EOS system formed by the tunnelling electroplating process show a significant increase in the current, or a shift towards the negative voltage by about 1.5 V. This result is similar to the stress-induced leakage current [7,8] found in the conventional MOS structure. Therefore, we conclude that the penetrating H þ ions are responsible for the oxide degradation during the tunnelling electroplating process.…”

Degradation and breakdown characteristics of thin MgO dielectric layers

“…The SILC is known to provide a reliable measurement of the buildup of neutral electron traps in the dielectric during stress and so can be used to identify the trap generation rate. 6 To extract the trap generation rate we take the I-t trace for a CVS and normalize the gate current to the t = 0 value. We then correct for the charge trapping component by subtracting the straight line tangential to it as shown in Fig.…”

“…As the stress continues the generation of defects in the layer becomes evident and the decline in leakage current slows due to the stress induced leakage current ͑SILC͒ component. 6 As this continues, the formation and wearout of leakage paths in the film leads to an eventual catastrophic breakdown.…”

3D TCAD Analysis of Hot-Carrier Degradation Mechanisms in 10 nm Node Input/Output Bulk FinFETs

“…The increased electric field is directly connected to the degradation of Si-SiO 2 interface near the drain junctions due to HCI [1]. Specially, HCI is one of the most important reliability issues on I/O devices due to the larger operation voltage [2][3][4]. The basic role of the I/O devices is to shift the core level voltage up to I/O level voltage (the operation voltage of the external device) [5].…”