Assessing the reliability of silicon nitride capacitors in a GaAs IC process

Author

Yeats, Bob

Author_Institution

Microwave Technol. Div., Hewlett-Packard Co., Santa Rosa, CA, USA

Volume

45

Issue

4

fYear

1998

fDate

4/1/1998 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

939

Lastpage

946

Abstract

A method is presented for predicting the lifetime of silicon nitride (SiN) capacitors for different voltages and temperatures. The method builds on techniques used for analyzing Si MOS capacitors. Measuring breakdown voltages at different ramp rates and temperatures allows fast on-wafer determination of the field (γ) and temperature (Ea) acceleration parameters. Three different types of SiN were studied and were found to have similar values of γ and Ea, however intrinsic lifetimes varied by orders of magnitude

Keywords

MIS capacitors; dielectric thin films; electric breakdown; failure analysis; integrated circuit reliability; life testing; monolithic integrated circuits; silicon compounds; thin film capacitors; GaAs; GaAs IC process; SiN; SiN capacitors; breakdown voltage measurement; field acceleration parameters; intrinsic lifetimes; on-wafer determination; ramp rates; reliability; temperature acceleration parameters; Acceleration; Dielectric breakdown; Gallium arsenide; Integrated circuit reliability; Life estimation; MOS capacitors; Silicon compounds; Stress; Temperature; Voltage;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Devices, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9383

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/16.662807

Filename

662807