Pseudo-progressive breakdown of ultra-thin nitrided gate oxide

Author

Reiner, Joachim C.

Author_Institution

Dept. Electron./Metrol., EMPA, Dubendorf, Switzerland

fYear

2004

fDate

18-21 Oct. 2004

Firstpage

151

Lastpage

153

Abstract

The breakdown behaviour of n-MOSTs with nitrided ultra-thin gate oxide of about 1.6 nm effective oxide thickness (EOT) has been investigated. The leakage current versus time curves show a combination of spontaneous and successive breakdown, as well as multiple breakdown events on the same sample. The paper shows the phenomenon and discusses the implications for a proper selection of failure criteria for reliability assessment. Statistics of breakdown occurrence times yield more consistent data than that based on time to leakage current criterion.

Keywords

MOSFET; dielectric thin films; leakage currents; semiconductor device breakdown; semiconductor device reliability; 1.6 nm; EOT; breakdown occurrence time statistics; effective oxide thickness; leakage current versus time curves; multiple breakdown events; n-MOST; pseudo-progressive breakdown; reliability assessment failure criteria; spontaneous breakdown; successive breakdown; ultra-thin nitrided gate oxide; Circuit noise; Current measurement; Digital circuits; Electric breakdown; Leakage current; Silicon; Statistical analysis; Statistics; Stress; Voltage;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Integrated Reliability Workshop Final Report, 2004 IEEE International

Print_ISBN

0-7803-8517-9

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IRWS.2004.1422761

Filename

1422761