Observation of oxide breakdown and its effects on the characteristics of ultra-thin-oxide nMOSFET's

Henson, W.K.; Yang, Ni; Wortman, J. J.

doi:10.1109/55.806099

Cited by 27 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…It was therefore suggested that SBD would not cause device or circuit failure in many applications [146]. However, Pompl et al [194] and others [135], [138], [195], [196] later showed that SBD will cause a significant increase in the transistor-off current if the breakdown spot is in the drain region, which is increasingly likely in short-channel devices. This will be referred to as "device breakdown."…”

Section: B Device Breakdownmentioning

confidence: 99%

Physical and predictive models of ultrathin oxide reliability in CMOS devices and circuits

Stathis

2001

IEEE Trans. Device Mater. Relib.

163

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Abstract-The microelectronics industry owes its considerable success largely to the existence of the thermal oxide of silicon. However, recently there is concern that the reliability of ultra-thin dielectrics will limit further scaling to slightly thinner than 2 nm. This paper will review the physics and statistics of dielectric wearout and breakdown in ultrathin SiO 2 -based gate dielectrics. Electrons or holes tunneling through the gate oxide generate defects until a critical density is reached and the oxide breaks down. The critical defect density is explained by the formation of a percolation path of defects across the oxide. Only 1% of these paths ultimately lead to destructive breakdown, and the microscopic nature of these defects is not known. The rate of defect generation decreases approximately exponentially with supply voltage, below a threshold voltage of about 5 V for hot electron-induced hydrogen release. However, the tunnel current also increases exponentially with decreasing oxide thickness, leading to a decreasing time-to-breakdown and a diminishing margin for reliability as device dimensions are scaled. Estimating the reliability of the dielectric requires an extrapolation from the measurement conditions (e.g., higher voltage) to operation conditions. Because of the diminished reliability margin, it has become imperative to try to reduce the error in this extrapolation.Long-term ( 1 year) stress experiments are now being used to measure the wearout and breakdown of ultrathin ( 2 nm) dielectric films as close as possible to operating conditions. These measurements have revealed the details of the voltage dependence of the defect generation rate and critical defect density, allowing better modeling of the voltage dependence of the time-to-breakdown. Such measurements are used to guide the technology development prior to the manufacturing stage. We then discuss the nature of the electrical conduction through a breakdown spot and the effect of the oxide breakdown on device and circuit performance. In some cases, an oxide breakdown does not lead to immediate circuit failure, so more research is needed in order to develop a quantitative methodology for predicting the reliability of circuits.

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Section: B Device Breakdownmentioning

confidence: 99%

Physical and predictive models of ultrathin oxide reliability in CMOS devices and circuits

Stathis

2001

IEEE Trans. Device Mater. Relib.

163

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“…C-V curves were measured from inversion to accumulation region, under illumination in the beginning of the C-V extraction, at different frequencies of 1M, 1k, 100 and 20 Hz, as shown in Fig [. Accumulation capacitance decrease has 1 ,()x1 ()., been observed in high-frequency C-V curves from hafnium aluminate gate dielectrics, due to gate leakage current and series resistance as reported in references [11,14], in addition to errors associated with the measurement instrument as stated by references [10,15]. In Fig.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 82%

“…As a result, the physical thickness was (15.5±0.2) nm and it should represent a thick thickness far away from presenting tunneling and leakage current [15].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Leakage modeling of AlHfO<inf>3.5</inf> semi-insulating dielectrics for power devices

Christiano

Sonnenberg

Santos

2013

28th Symposium on Microelectronics Technology and Devices (SBMicro 2013)

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Electrical characterization of hafnium aluminates gate dielectrics, using capacitance-voltage (C-V) measurements, was carried out for different frequencies. The dielectric film was deposited with equal molar concentrations of aluminum and hafnium (AlHf03.5) in order to analyze the influence of aluminum in the AlHfOy system at high concentrations. In addition, the AIHf03.5 film was annealed at 1000°C for 60s to simulate the thermal budget during a conventional CMOS processing. C-V measurements were performed in darkness and under illumination, having as a result a high-frequency behavior of the minority carriers already from 1 kHz under illumination. Also, flat band voltage (VFB) was greater than or equal to zero for all conditions measured. On the other hand, the leakage phenomenaoccurring at the accumulation region, was modeled with a simplified electrical model using a leakage admittance Yc whose influence was predominant at high frequencies (lMHz) in the accumulation region. Using a low frequency to obtain the accumulation capacitance without the influence of Y c and knowing the physical thickness from X-ray reflectometry (XRR), the average permittivity obtained was 6.7±1.6, which is lower than the one reported for alumina (-to) and its achievement is possibly affected by the leakage process.

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“…ITRS requirements (specified for the off-state region) are still met by the overall leakage current; however, when the device is turned on, much larger DT gate currents arise. Just for comparison, smaller currents, for instance induced by Soft Breakdown, usually motivate some concern [15]. This increases power dissipation and could, in principle, endanger circuit functionality.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of gate-leakage currents on CMOS circuit performance

Marras

Munari

Vescovi

et al. 2005

Microelectronics Reliability

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Observation of oxide breakdown and its effects on the characteristics of ultra-thin-oxide nMOSFET's

Cited by 27 publications

References 14 publications

Physical and predictive models of ultrathin oxide reliability in CMOS devices and circuits

Physical and predictive models of ultrathin oxide reliability in CMOS devices and circuits

Leakage modeling of AlHfO<inf>3.5</inf> semi-insulating dielectrics for power devices

Impact of gate-leakage currents on CMOS circuit performance

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