Voltage-dependent voltage-acceleration of oxide breakdown for ultra-thin oxides

We report the voltage-dependence of voltage acceleration for ultra-thin oxides from 2.2 V to 5 V over a range of T/sub ox/ values from 1.7 nm to 5.0 nm. This unique behavior manifest itself as a power-law voltage-dependence for time-to-breakdown (T/sub BD/) over a variety of experimental observations. Using the concept of energy-to-breakdown, we explore the possible scenarios such as fractional energy or defect generation probability as a function of voltage to account for the increase in voltage acceleration with decreasing voltages.