Effect of oxidation ambient on the dielectric breakdown characteristics of thermal oxide films of silicon

Murakami, Yoshio; Shiota, T.; Shingyouji, Takayuki; Abe, Hidenobu

doi:10.1063/1.355731

Cited by 16 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…One of the most characteristic features of this degradation is its oxide thickness dependence: lower breakdown fields for thicker oxide films in the range of 10-50 nm as reported by Murakami and co-workers. 8 As shown in Figs. 17͑a͒ and 17͑b͒, the present reference wafers have a similar oxide thickness dependence.…”

Section: E Degradation Due To Grown-in Defectsmentioning

confidence: 79%

“…Metallic contaminants picked up during the fabrication of an integrated circuit degrade the breakdown field of a SiO 2 film, 1-4 as do crystal lattice defects [4][5][6][7][8][9] and roughness of the wafer surface. 10 Although this degradation has been the subject of a large number of studies, it is still incompletely understood.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…͑3͒, the number density of the grown-in defects associated with the degradation is obtained as 10 5 -10 7 cm Ϫ3 . 8 They are too few to be observed a͒ Present address: Department of Nuclear Engineering, Nagoya University, Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya 464, Japan. b͒ Present address: Mitsubishi Materials Silicon Corporation, 314 Kaneuchi, Nishisangao, Noda, Chiba 278, Japan.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Degradation of dielectric breakdown field of thermal SiO2 films due to structural defects in Czochralski silicon substrates

Satoh

Shiota

Murakami

et al. 1996

Journal of Applied Physics

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We used heat treatment to intentionally introduce various structural defects in Czochralski silicon substrates. The type, size, and number density of the induced defects were surveyed with transmission electron microscopy, and the defects were then incorporated into SiO 2 films ͑10-50 nm thick͒ during thermal oxidation in dry O 2 . The effect of the defects on dielectric strength of the SiO 2 films was examined with a time zero dielectric breakdown method. Larger platelet oxygen precipitates caused greater decreases of the breakdown field, and precipitates smaller than the SiO 2 film thickness did not appreciably reduce the breakdown field. Every large platelet oxygen precipitate incorporated in the SiO 2 film caused a degradation. Octahedral oxygen precipitates caused little degradation. The breakdown field was higher than 7 MV/cm and did not depend much on the SiO 2 film thickness and precipitate size. We discussed possible mechanisms for the degradation due to both kinds of precipitates. Oxidation-induced stacking faults formed by a surface oxidation did not markedly reduce the breakdown field when only segments of dislocations and stacking faults were incorporated in the SiO 2 film. Another serious degradation was caused by pits that were formed by dissolving octahedral oxygen precipitates in a HF solution. The breakdown field was lower for thicker oxide films, and it recovered as the pit shape became smoother during chemical etching. We proposed that this degradation was caused by a local thinning of SiO 2 film due to stress generated in the oxidation of pits. These results suggest that voids rather than the other reported grown-in defects play the most important role in the degradation observed for as-grown silicon.

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Section: E Degradation Due To Grown-in Defectsmentioning

confidence: 79%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Degradation of dielectric breakdown field of thermal SiO2 films due to structural defects in Czochralski silicon substrates

Satoh

Shiota

Murakami

et al. 1996

Journal of Applied Physics

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“…Care must also be taken when comparing data to specify gate oxide polarity, substrate type, and whether dc, pulsed, or ac stress conditions have been used [256,265,625,628,748,[814][815][816][817][818][819][820]. Much effort has gone into production of extremely uniform and reliable oxides [223,261,676,[821][822][823][824][825][826][827][828][829][830][831][832][833][834].…”

Section: Reliabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Oxide Wearout, Breakdown, and Reliability

Dumin

2001

Int. J. Hi. Spe. Ele. Syst.

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The subject of oxide wearout, breakdown, and reliability will be reviewed, largely, from an historical perspective. Five topics will be discussed: oxide breakdown, oxide leakage currents, trap generation, statistics, and reliability. An early model of oxide breakdown, developed by Klein and Solomon, will be described and will be shown to be generally applicable to oxides manufactured today, and to other solid insulators, as well. Both hard and soft breakdowns were included in this model and will be discussed here. The importance of stressinduced-leakage-currents (SILCs) and direct tunneling currents will be discussed in the context of device applications, thinner oxides, and oxide reliability. The diminishing importance of breakdown in ultra thin oxides in ultra small devices will be contrasted with the increasing importance of oxide leakage currents. Trap generation is important in the triggering of breakdown and in the formation of SILCs. Trap generation will be discussed in some detail. Various statistical formulations of oxide breakdown, and how these distributions are related to trap generation, will be discussed. All of these effects will be related to oxide reliability and oxide integrity. An extensive bibliography has been included to help the reader obtain more detailed information concerning the concepts being discussed. Int. J. Hi. Spe. Ele. Syst. 2001.11:617-718. Downloaded from www.worldscientific.com by UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA on 04/10/15. For personal use only. Int. J. Hi. Spe. Ele. Syst. 2001.11:617-718. Downloaded from www.worldscientific.com by UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA on 04/10/15. For personal use only. Oxide Wearout, Breakdown, and Reliability 619found in an early review paper [20]. This wearout/breakdown model will be referred to as the "Klein/Solomon" model below when comparisons with modern works are needed.The Klein/Solomon model has been refined and confirmed continuously from the 1970s through the present time [10,20,. The extent of the damage is determined both by the 1/2 CV 2 energy stored in the capacitor and by the rate at which this energy discharges through the local hot spot [10,20,75,82,83,88,92,93,96,[100][101][102]. The local hot spot is often accompanied by light emission, in many cases incandescence [8-10, 103-115]. Several techniques have been developed for using the damage introduced during the breakdown to study the breakdown process [80,[116][117][118][119][120][121][122][123][124]. During the breakdown event, the stored energy in the capacitor, 1/2 CV 2 , partially discharges through the breakdown region in a time limited by the impedance of the total measurement system [8][9][10][82][83][84][85].The local breakdowns are intimately coupled to the trap generation and various trap generation models will be discussed in a separate section.During the breakdowns described by Klein/Solomon, one of two scenarios is possible during and following a breakdown discharge. Which scenario takes place depends on the oxide thickness, the oxide area, the magnitude of the stored energy, the ...

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“…[5][6][7] We have reported that, under the positive gate stressing ͑Fowler-Nordheim electron injection condition from the inversion layer͒, Q bd in wet oxides is larger than that in dry oxides, irrespective of temperature, and that the activation energy E a of Q bd in the high temperature region is the same ͑around 0.1 eV͒ for both oxides. 7 We have proposed that the origin of this E a can be ascribed to diffusion of hydrogen related species, which are responsible for dielectric breakdown in the high temperature region, because the activation energy of diffusion of atomic hydrogen has been reported to be 0.18 eV.…”

Section: Correlation Between Two Dielectric Breakdown Mechanisms In Umentioning

confidence: 99%

Correlation between two dielectric breakdown mechanisms in ultra-thin gate oxides

Satake

Yasuda

Takagi

et al. 1996

Applied Physics Letters

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Effect of oxidation ambient on the dielectric breakdown characteristics of thermal oxide films of silicon

Cited by 16 publications

References 5 publications

Degradation of dielectric breakdown field of thermal SiO2 films due to structural defects in Czochralski silicon substrates

Degradation of dielectric breakdown field of thermal SiO2 films due to structural defects in Czochralski silicon substrates

Oxide Wearout, Breakdown, and Reliability

Correlation between two dielectric breakdown mechanisms in ultra-thin gate oxides

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