Role of hydrogen in volatile behaviour of defects in SiO
            <sub>2</sub>
            -based electronic devices

Wimmer, Yannick; El-Sayed, Al-Moatasem; Gös, W.; Grasser, T.; Shluger, Alexander L.

doi:10.1098/rspa.2016.0009

Cited by 47 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 109 publications

(188 reference statements)

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“…These types of processes contribute to bias temperature instability as well as random telegraph noise and other reliability issues in CMOS devices, as discussed in Refs. [39,67]. All in one, injection of atomic hydrogen into the oxide, its diffusion towards electrodes and subsequent ionization can be seen as key processes underlying charge instability of high-permittivity metal oxide layers.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this case, the electron is localized on a Si atom and a proton forms an O-H bond nearby. However, the proton is loosely bound and the volatility observed in electrical measurements of SiO 2 -based CMOS devices can be explained by the motion of the proton from one O ion to another [39]. Thus structural disorder adds important new features to the interaction of hydrogen with materials.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Interactions of hydrogen with amorphous hafnium oxide

2017

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We used density functional theory (DFT) calculations to study the interaction of hydrogen with amorphous hafnia (a-HfO 2 ) using a hybrid exchange-correlation functional. Injection of atomic hydrogen, its diffusion towards electrodes, and ionization can be seen as key processes underlying charge instability of high-permittivity amorphous hafnia layers in many applications. Hydrogen in many wide band gap crystalline oxides exhibits negative-U behavior (+1 and −1 charged states are thermodynamically more stable than the neutral state) . Our results show that in a-HfO 2 hydrogen is also negative-U, with charged states being the most thermodynamically stable at all Fermi level positions. However, metastable atomic hydrogen can share an electron with intrinsic electron trapping precursor sites [Phys. Rev. B 94, 020103 (2016).] forming a [e − tr + O-H] center, which is lower in energy on average by about 0.2 eV. These electron trapping sites can affect both the dynamics and thermodynamics of the interaction of hydrogen with a-HfO 2 and the electrical behavior of amorphous hafnia films in CMOS devices.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interactions of hydrogen with amorphous hafnium oxide

2017

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“…The defect structures of the hydrogen bridges were created by selecting different sites within a−SiO 2 , where the hydrogen atom was placed close to an oxygen atom with an extremely long Si-O bond [156]. This selection criterion resulted in HE centers (0.14%) which also showed a back-projected configuration.…”

Section: V4 Hydroxyl E Centermentioning

confidence: 99%

Identification of oxide defects in semiconductor devices: A systematic approach linking DFT to rate equations and experimental evidence

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Wimmer

El-Sayed

et al. 2018

Microelectronics Reliability

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It is well-established that oxide defects adversely affect functionality and reliability of a wide range of microelectronic devices. In semiconductor-insulator systems, insulator defects can capture or emit charge carriers from/to the semiconductor. These defects feature several stable configurations, which may have profound implications for the rates of the charge capture and emission processes. Recently, these complex capture/emission events have been investigated experimentally in considerable detail in Si/SiO2 devices, but their theoretical understanding still remains vague. In this paper we discuss in detail how the capture/emission processes can be simulated using the theoretical methods developed for calculating rates of charge transfer reactions between molecules and in electro-chemistry. By employing this theoretical framework we link the atomistic defect configurations to known trapping model parameters (e.g. trap levels) as well as measured capture/emission times in Si/SiO2 devices. Using density functional theory (DFT) calculations, we investigate possible atomistic configurations for various defects in amorphous (a)-SiO2 implicated in being involved in the degradation of microelectronic devices. These include the oxygen vacancy and hydrogen bridge as well as the recently proposed hydroxyl E center. In order to capture the effects of statistical defect-to-defect variations that are inevitably present in amorphous insulators, we analyze a large ensemble of defects both experimentally and theoretically. This large-scale investigation allows us to prioritize the candidates from our defect list based on their trap parameter distributions. For example, we can rule out the E center as a possible candidate. In addition, we establish realistic ranges for the trap parameters, which are useful for model calibration and increase the credibility of simulation results by avoiding artificial solutions. Furthermore, we address the effect of nuclear tunneling, which is involved according to the theory of charge transfer reactions. Based on our DFT results, we demonstrate the impact of nuclear tunneling on the capture/emission process, including their temperature and field dependence, and also give estimates for this effect in Si/SiO2 devices.

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“…The authors of [12] also give a review of R-D model and charge trapping model. Moreover, we refer the reader to [13] for the latest charge-trapping NBTI model. In this work we adopt the R-D model for our analysis since the technology library we used already includes the V t drift information for a R-D model, and specifically g(t) = t 1/4 based on the technology library provided by STMicroelectronics.…”

Section: A Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Empirical derivation of upper and lower bounds of NBTI aging for embedded cores

Macii

Poncino

2018

Microelectronics Reliability

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In deeply scaled CMOS technologies, device aging causes transistor performance parameters to degrade over time. While reliable models to accurately assess these degradations are available for devices and circuits, the extension to these models for estimating the aging of microprocessor cores is not trivial and there is no well accepted model in the literature. This work proposes a methodology for deriving an NBTI-induced aging model for embedded cores. Since aging can only be determined on a netlist, we use an empirical approach based on characterizing the model using a set of open synthesizable embedded cores, which allows us to establish a link between the aging at the transistor level and the aging from the core perspective in terms of maximum frequency degradation. Using this approach, we were able to (1) prove the independence of the aging on the workloads which run by the cores, and (2) calculate upper and lower bounds for the "aging factor" that can be used for a generic embedded processor. Results show that our method yields very good accuracy in predicting the frequency degradation of cores due to NBTI aging effect, and can be used with confidence when the netlist of the cores is not available.

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Role of hydrogen in volatile behaviour of defects in SiO ₂ -based electronic devices

Cited by 47 publications

References 109 publications

Interactions of hydrogen with amorphous hafnium oxide

Interactions of hydrogen with amorphous hafnium oxide

Identification of oxide defects in semiconductor devices: A systematic approach linking DFT to rate equations and experimental evidence

Empirical derivation of upper and lower bounds of NBTI aging for embedded cores

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Role of hydrogen in volatile behaviour of defects in SiO 2 -based electronic devices

Cited by 47 publications

References 109 publications

Interactions of hydrogen with amorphous hafnium oxide

Interactions of hydrogen with amorphous hafnium oxide

Identification of oxide defects in semiconductor devices: A systematic approach linking DFT to rate equations and experimental evidence

Empirical derivation of upper and lower bounds of NBTI aging for embedded cores

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Role of hydrogen in volatile behaviour of defects in SiO ₂ -based electronic devices