Polarity dependence degradation mechanism of Al2O3 based metal-insulator-metal antifuse

Abstract

In this paper, we investigated the degradation mechanism of an atomic layer deposition Al2O3 based metal-insulator-metal antifuse device under both positive and negative voltage polarities. It was found that the leakage current of the antifuse device was larger under negative voltage polarity compared to positive voltage polarity, while the lifetime was longer for negative stress than that of positive stress. We found that the degradation mechanism under positive voltage stress was strongly influenced by the good oxygen affinity of top electrode metal Ti, and the current that flowed through the dielectric was not a main source in the degradation process. The electron trapping characteristics of the device were also investigated, and it may contribute to obtain a long lifetime.