Observation of latent reliability degradation in ultrathin oxides after heavy-ion irradiation

Abstract

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Heavy-ion-induced soft breakdown of thin gate oxides

“…At an LET MeV-cm /mg (737 MeV Xe) at zero applied field, a fluence of 10 ions/cm on 10 cm capacitors ( 10 ion "hits") resulted in an over an order of magnitude reduction in timedependent dielectric breakdown lifetime. This effect does not occur for gamma irradiation [17]. So although in the short term, a slight increase in leakage caused by RSB may be tolerated, in the long term, an intrinsically weaker oxide may result.…”

Statistical model for radiation-induced wear-out of ultra-thin gate oxides after exposure to heavy ion irradiation

“…Clearly, the TTBD decreases with increasing heavy ion fluence. In fact, by increasing the ion fluence [20], many more ions hit the gate oxide generating many more damaged regions. Nevertheless, it has been demonstrated that even a single ion may generate a region damaged enough to trigger the oxide breakdown, i.e., the end of device lifetime, after a short electrical stress with gate voltage close to the operating conditions [19].…”

Growth of heavy ion-induced nanodots at the SiO2–Si interface: Correlation with ultrathin gate oxide reliability

“…In their paper, Suehle et al [11] accept not to have any precise idea concerning the oxide degradation mechanisms. Our observations correlated with experiments in the scope of swift heavy ion-induced nanostructure growth [17,18,20,22] may bring possible explanations.…”

“…Concerning SEGR or even Single Event Burnout, it is well assumed that these processes are field-assisted degradation modes during the heavy ion path. But some recent works have pointed out that latent oxide defects might be induced by swift heavy ions even when the device is unbiased [11].…”

“…The downscaling of the technologies, leading to use thinner oxide, make it imperative to assess the intrinsic reliability of swift heavy ion-irradiated oxides. Earlier studies have pointed out that swift heavy ions may induce a latent reliability effect as a result of precursor ion damage [11]. This lifetime degradation was observed for unbiased devices during irradiation.…”