Degradation mechanism of HfSiON gate insulator and effect of nitrogen composition on the statistical distribution of the breakdown

Author

Koyama, M. ; Satake, H. ; Koike, M. ; Ino, T. ; Suzuki, M. ; Iijima, R. ; Kamimuta, Y. ; Takashima, A. ; Hongo, C. ; Nishiyama, A.

Author_Institution

Adv. LSI Technol. Lab., Toshiba Corp., Yokohama, Japan

fYear

2003

fDate

8-10 Dec. 2003

Abstract

We intensively investigate the degradation mechanism of HfSiON during constant voltage stress. It is found that unstable trap-sites in the HfSiON play a significant role in the conduction path creation. We also find Weibull slopes increase and the statistical fluctuation of post-breakdown conductance is suppressed with increasing nitrogen concentration of the film, probably due to the improved homogeneity of the HfSiON microstructure.

Keywords

MOS capacitors; Weibull distribution; dielectric thin films; hafnium compounds; semiconductor device breakdown; semiconductor device reliability; HfSiON; NMOS capacitors; Weibull slopes; breakdown statistical distribution; conduction path creation; constant voltage stress; gate insulator degradation mechanism; high-k gate insulator; long-term reliability; microstructure homogeneity; nitrogen composition effect; nitrogen concentration; post-breakdown conductance statistical fluctuation; unstable trap-sites; Conductive films; Degradation; Electric breakdown; Fluctuations; Insulation; Microstructure; Nitrogen; Statistical distributions; Stress; Voltage;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Electron Devices Meeting, 2003. IEDM '03 Technical Digest. IEEE International

Conference_Location

Washington, DC, USA

Print_ISBN

0-7803-7872-5

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IEDM.2003.1269431

Filename

1269431