Title :
Influence of dielectric breakdown on MOSFET drain current
Author :
Cellere, Giorgio ; Paccagnella, Alessandro ; Mazzocchi, Andrea ; Valentini, M.G.
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Inf. Eng., Padova Univ., Italy
Abstract :
Breakdown of gate dielectric is one of the most dangerous threats for reliability of MOSFET devices in operating conditions. Not only the gate leakage resulting from breakdown is a problem for power consumption issues, but the "on" drain current can be strongly affected. In this paper, we show that in recent technologies, featuring ultrathin gate dielectrics, the corruption of drain current due to breakdown can be modeled as the effect of a portion of channel being damaged by the opening of the breakdown spot. Devices featuring 2.2- and 3.5-nm-thick gate oxide and various channel widths are stressed by using a specialized setup, and the degradation of transistor parameters is statistically studied. The analysis shows that the radius of the damaged region responsible for drain current degradation can be estimated between 1.4 and 1.8 μm.
Keywords :
MOSFET; leakage currents; semiconductor device breakdown; semiconductor device models; semiconductor device reliability; 2.2 nm; 3.5 nm; MOSFET devices reliability; dielectric breakdown; drain current; gate dielectric; gate leakage; gate oxide; power consumption; transistor parameters degradation; ultrathin gate dielectrics; Degradation; Dielectric breakdown; Dielectric devices; Electric breakdown; Energy consumption; Insulation; Leakage current; MOSFET circuits; Predictive models; Semiconductor device modeling;
Journal_Title :
Electron Devices, IEEE Transactions on
DOI :
10.1109/TED.2004.842711
