From micro breakdown to hard breakdown - from artifact to destructive failure?

Summary form only given. Hard breakdown, analog and digital soft breakdown, micro breakdown, progressive breakdown, stress-induced leakage current, anomalous stress-induced leakage current, etc. When a constant voltage stress is applied to a thin (<10 nm) oxide layer many degradation phenomena are observed. All of these have in common that they are localized stress-induced leakage paths involving electrical trap centers in the bulk of the oxide, but different names are in use depending on the magnitude of the leakage current or on the application where they are typically measured. Some of these stress-induced leakage paths can be negligible artifacts for one application while they are showstoppers for another application. This tutorial aims at presenting a comprehensive overview of all these dielectric breakdown phenomena, explaining their origin and showing what test methods and structures are needed to observe and study them. Examples are presented on SiO₂, SiON and some high-k dielectrics.