Polarity-dependent dielectric breakdown-induced epitaxy (DBIE) in Si MOSFETs

Author

Tung, C.H. ; Pey, K.L. ; Lin, W.H. ; Radhakrishnan, M.K.

Author_Institution

Inst. of Microelectron., Singapore, Singapore

Volume

23

Issue

9

fYear

2002

Firstpage

526

Lastpage

528

Abstract

The physical evidence describing the structural deformation at the failure site of soft breakdowns (SBDs) in the 33-/spl Aring/ and 25-/spl Aring/ ultrathin gate oxide of narrow MOSFETs is reported. A "hillock" type epitaxial Si spot with size ranging from 2 to 100 nm associated with the gate-oxide breakdown failure is always found in the vicinity of the gate oxide and its formation depends strongly on the stress polarity. This epitaxial spot is believed to be induced by the breakdown event and this phenomenon can be named as polarity-dependent dielectric breakdown-induced epitaxy (DBIE).

Keywords

MOSFET; elemental semiconductors; failure analysis; semiconductor device breakdown; semiconductor epitaxial layers; silicon; Si; Si MOSFET; dielectric breakdown-induced epitaxy; failure mechanism; gate oxide breakdown; hillock-type spot; soft breakdown; stress voltage polarity dependence; structural deformation; ultrathin gate oxide; Breakdown voltage; Dielectric breakdown; Dielectric substrates; Electric breakdown; Epitaxial growth; Failure analysis; MOSFETs; Microelectronics; Senior members; Stress;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Device Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0741-3106

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LED.2002.802662

Filename

1028988