The experimental demonstration of the BTI-induced breakdown path in 28nm high-k metal gate technology CMOS devices

Author

Hsieh, E.R. ; Lu, P.Y. ; Chung, Steve S. ; Chang, K.Y. ; Liu, Chi Harold ; Ke, J.C. ; Yang, C.W. ; Tsai, C.T.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electron. Eng., Nat. Chiao Tung Univ., Hsinchu, Taiwan

fYear

2014

fDate

9-12 June 2014

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

2

Abstract

For the first time, the breakdown path induced by BTI stress can be traced from the RTN measurement. It was demonstrated on advanced high-k metal gate CMOS devices. RTN traps in the dielectric layers can be labeled as a pointer to trace the breakdown path. It was found that breakdown path tends to grow from the interface of HK/IL or IL/Si which is the most defective region. Two types of breakdown paths are revealed. The soft-breakdown path is in a shape like spindle, while the hard breakdown is like a snake-walking path. These two breakdown paths are reflected in a two slopes TDDB lifetime plot. These new findings on the breakdown-path formation will be helpful to the understanding of the reliability in HK CMOS devices.

Keywords

CMOS integrated circuits; electric breakdown; high-k dielectric thin films; BTI stress; BTI-induced breakdown path; HK CMOS devices; RTN measurement; RTN traps; TDDB lifetime plot; bias-temperature-instability; defective region; dielectric layers; high-k metal gate technology; shape like spindle; size 28 nm; snake-walking path; soft-breakdown path; time-dependent-dielectric-breakdown; Dielectrics; Electric breakdown; Electron traps; Logic gates; MOSFET; Metals; Stress;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

VLSI Technology (VLSI-Technology): Digest of Technical Papers, 2014 Symposium on

Conference_Location

Honolulu, HI

ISSN

0743-1562

Print_ISBN

978-1-4799-3331-0

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/VLSIT.2014.6894389

Filename

6894389