Overestimation of oxide defects density in large test capacitors due to plasma processing

Author

Shin, Hyungcheol ; Je, Minkyu ; Hu, Chenming

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng., Korea Adv. Inst. of Sci. & Technol., Taejon, South Korea

Volume

44

Issue

9

fYear

1997

fDate

9/1/1997 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1554

Lastpage

1556

Abstract

Oxide shorts density obtained from large test capacitors is found to be higher than that in a multiple of separated small capacitors having the same total oxide area. The observed difference in failure rate is explained by the different oxide charging currents for the weak spots in the two devices during plasma processing. This experiment can explain the observed lower density of shorts after plasma processing in ICs, which is composed of many small devices, than in test structures which are large capacitors. Suggestions on the test structures are presented

Keywords

MOS capacitors; MOS integrated circuits; failure analysis; integrated circuit testing; integrated circuit yield; sputter etching; IC yield; MOS integrated circuits; failure rate; oxide charging currents; oxide defects density; plasma ashing; plasma etching; plasma processing; test capacitors; test structures; weak spots; Capacitors; Circuit testing; Etching; Laboratories; Plasma applications; Plasma density; Plasma devices; Plasma materials processing; Resists; Solid state circuits;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Devices, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9383

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/16.622615

Filename

622615