Physical analysis of reliability degradation in sub-micron devices

Detailed physical analysis is of paramount importance to understand the exact mechanisms of failures or degradation in devices, especially as dimensions are shrinking in nanometer scale. This paper describes the physical analysis of soft and hard breakdown failures of thin gate oxides to establish a link to the electrical failure signatures. The progression of changes happening in sub-nanometer levels during device degradation is illustrated using high-resolution transmission electron microscopic analysis.