Title :
Comparison of oxide wearout resulting from DC and pulsed charge injection
Author :
Vigrass, William J. ; Dumin, David J.
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Clemson Univ., SC, USA
Abstract :
Gate leakage currents in VLSI MOS transistors can be studied using MOS capacitors which consist of a thin-oxide dielectric sandwiched between a gate electrode and the semiconductor substrate. Application of voltage to the gate can result in small amounts of current passing through the oxide film as a consequence of quantum-mechanical tunneling. This current may in time cause changes in the film´s dielectric properties which result in a degradation of the capacitor´s electrical characteristics. The factors governing these dielectric changes have been studied. Since actual devices operate in a pulsed rather than a DC mode, it is necessary to compare the effects observed under both conditions
Keywords :
VLSI; capacitors; insulated gate field effect transistors; MOS capacitors; VLSI MOS transistors; dielectric properties; gate leakage currents; oxide wearout; pulsed charge injection; quantum-mechanical tunneling; semiconductor substrate; Dielectric films; Dielectric substrates; Electrodes; Leakage current; MOS capacitors; MOSFETs; Semiconductor films; Tunneling; Very large scale integration; Voltage;
Conference_Titel :
Southeastcon '88., IEEE Conference Proceedings
Conference_Location :
Knoxville, TN
DOI :
10.1109/SECON.1988.194848