Thickness determination of thin and ultra-thin SiO2 films by C-AFM IV-spectroscopy

Frammelsberger, Werner; Benstetter, Günther; Kiely, Janice; Stamp, Richard

doi:10.1016/j.apsusc.2005.04.010

Cited by 53 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…15,16 As an example, Fig. This time has been estimated from the features ͑hill-ocks͒ observed in the C-AFM topography images of the Si-nc embedded samples.…”

Section: Retention Timementioning

confidence: 99%

Nanoscale electrical characterization of Si-nc based memory metal-oxide-semiconductor devices

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Avidano

Nafrı́a

et al. 2007

Journal of Applied Physics

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Conduction mechanisms and charge storage in Si-nanocrystals metal-oxide-semiconductor memory devices studied with conducting atomic force microscopy J. Appl. Phys. 98, 056101 (2005); 10.1063/1.2010626The effect of additional oxidation on the memory characteristics of metal-oxide-semiconductor capacitors with Si nanocrystals Appl. Phys. Lett. 82, 4818 (2003); 10.1063/1.1587273 Nanocrystal metal-oxide-semiconductor memories obtained by chemical vapor deposition of Si nanocrystals Memory effects related to deep levels in metal-oxide-semiconductor structure with nanocrystalline SiIn this work, standard and nanoscale experiments have been combined to investigate the electrical properties of metal-oxide-semiconductor ͑MOS͒ memory devices with silicon nanocrystals ͑Si-nc͒ embedded in the gate oxide. The nanometer scale analysis has been performed with a conductive atomic force microscope ͑C-AFM͒ which, thanks to its high lateral resolution, allows the study of areas of only few hundreds of nm 2 . Therefore, with this technique, a very reduced number of Si-nc can be investigated. We have studied the conduction mechanisms, the retention time, and the amount of charge stored in the Si-nc of these structures. The results have demonstrated that Si-nc enhance the gate oxide electrical conduction due to trap assisted tunneling. On the other hand, Si-nc can act as trapping sites. The amount of charge stored in Si-nc has been estimated through the change induced in the barrier height measured from the current-voltage ͑I-V͒ curves ͑at the nanoscale, with C-AFM͒ and from the flat band voltage shift determined from the capacitance-voltage ͑C-V͒ characteristics measured on polygated structures. Both procedures have shown an occupation level of ϳ20% of the Si-nc. The retention times, estimated at the nanoscale and from standard electrical characterization, are consistent. Moreover, contrary to standard characterization techniques, C-AFM allows the mesurement of lateral leakage currents in memories based on high density trapping sites. All these results allow one to conclude that C-AFM is a very suitable tool in performing a detailed investigation of the performance of memory devices based on MOS structures with Si-nc at the nanoscale.

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“…15,16 As an example, Fig. This time has been estimated from the features ͑hill-ocks͒ observed in the C-AFM topography images of the Si-nc embedded samples.…”

Section: Retention Timementioning

confidence: 99%

Nanoscale electrical characterization of Si-nc based memory metal-oxide-semiconductor devices

Porti

Avidano

Nafrı́a

et al. 2007

Journal of Applied Physics

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“…In this respect, scanning probe microscopes have been shown to be powerful tools for characterizing the electrical properties of dielectrics. [3][4][5][6][7] Conductive atomic force microscopy ͑CAFM͒ has been widely used to evaluate the electrical conduction of polycrystalline high-k dielectrics. Whereas some studies have suggested that conduction through the polycrystalline films occurs primarily through the bulk of the grains, 8,9 others have demonstrated that the leakage current flows preferentially through the grain boundaries ͑GBs͒, 3,7,10,11 which agrees with the results of ab initio calculations.…”

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Correlation between the nanoscale electrical and morphological properties of crystallized hafnium oxide-based metal oxide semiconductor structures

Iglesias

Porti

Nafrı́a

et al. 2010

Applied Physics Letters

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The relationship between electrical and structural characteristics of polycrystalline HfO2 films has been investigated by conductive atomic force microscopy under ultrahigh vacuum conditions. The results demonstrate that highly conductive and breakdown (BD) sites are concentrated mainly at the grain boundaries (GBs). Higher conductivity at the GBs is found to be related to their intrinsic electrical properties, while the positions of the electrical stress-induced BD sites correlate to the local thinning of the dielectric. The results indicate that variations in the local characteristics of the high-k film caused by its crystallization may have a strong impact on the electrical characteristics of high-k dielectric stacks.

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“…Cleaning scans procedure [21,22] was used to insure the removal of the tip contaminations prior to conducting the C-AFM scans. Several topographical scans were done for this purpose.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Non-ohmic transport behavior in ultra-thin gold films

Souier¹,

Chiesa²

2011

Materials Science and Engineering: B

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Thickness determination of thin and ultra-thin SiO2 films by C-AFM IV-spectroscopy

Cited by 53 publications

References 28 publications

Nanoscale electrical characterization of Si-nc based memory metal-oxide-semiconductor devices

Nanoscale electrical characterization of Si-nc based memory metal-oxide-semiconductor devices

Correlation between the nanoscale electrical and morphological properties of crystallized hafnium oxide-based metal oxide semiconductor structures

Non-ohmic transport behavior in ultra-thin gold films

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