Electrical instability of ultrathin thermal oxides on silicon

Breakdown and defect generation in ultrathin gate oxide

“…Recently, the defect generation in 2-3.5 nm SiO 2 layers was examined by measuring the change in the tunnel current for a given bias voltage. [9][10][11][12] The increase of the tunnel current that was found corresponds with the creation of positive charge in the oxide during stressing. This positive charge creation decreased strongly with the reduction of the electron energy.…”

Current and capacitance characteristics of a metal–insulator–semiconductor structure with an ultrathin oxide layer

“…Although the breakdown characteristics are well documented and described with regards to silicon dioxide [3], the mechanism of degradation leading to dielectric failure is a complex issue [4]. We have previously reported the effect of moderate electrical stress on ultrathin (<4 nm) silicon dioxide MIS structures, where the current instability observed was argued to be due to localized charge centers in the oxide [5]. In the present study we investigate the conduction current through MIS structures with very thin dielectric layers and the capacitance-gate-voltage characteristics (C-V ) of the devices.…”

SiO2Layer Charge State Variation in Fowler-Nordheim Tunneling Regime

“…This in turn leads to changes of the electrical parameters of a device, such as channel threshold voltage shift and transconductance degradation in MOSFETs and affects the write/erase characteristics of electrically eraseable programmable read only memories (EEPROMs). Charge generation in the SiO2 layer by high electric field stress is a well known phenomenon described in the literature [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]. In spite of many studies carried out on that topic, the understanding of the physical mechanisms of this process is not satisfactory.…”