Articles you may be interested inIn situ investigations of the metal/silicon reaction in Ti/Si thin films capped with TiN: Volumetric analysis of the C49-C54 transformation A kinetic study of the C49 to C54 TiSi2 conversion using electrical resistivity measurements on single narrow lines J. Appl. Phys. 78, 7040 (1995); 10.1063/1.360407 C49/C54 phase transformation during chemical vapor deposition of TiSi2

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We have investigated gate oxide degradation in metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) devices as a function of high-field constant-current stress for charge injection from both gate and substrate. The two polarities are asymmetric: gate injection, where the substrate Si-SiO, interface is the collecting electrode for the energetic electrons, shows a higher rate of interface-state generation ( A Dit) and lower charge-to-breakdown e,,,,. Thus the collecting electrode interface, which suffers primary damage, emerges as a critical degradation site in addition to the injecting electrode interface, which has been the traditional focus. Consistent with a physical-damage model of breakdown, we demonstrate that interfacial degradation is an important precursor of breakdown, and that the nature of breakdown-related damage is physical, such as trap-generation by broken bonds.

Ultrathin dielectric films play an important role in integrated circuits (ICs), both as gate dielectrics for MOS technolo-gies~ and as tunnel dielectrics for nonvolatile erasable memory (e.g. EEPROM) technologies. We have characterized chargeto-breakdown (Qbd) using constant-current stress in such films for a range of thicknesses, temperatures, and stress-current densities. This comprehensive characterization reveals several trends not observed previously. While we briefly allude to. possible implications on breakdown mechanisms, the focus of this paper is delineating the observed trends. At room temperature, Qbd values depend on thickness in a complex manner, with Qbd decreasing with increasing thickness in certain regimes, and staying constant in other regimes. Qbd falls dramatically with increasing temperature for all thicknesses, but the magnitude of the effect differs for each thickness. We believe that this characterization contributes significantly to predicting reliability of devices employing ui~rathin oxides.

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