Simulation of hot hole currents in ultra-thin silicon dioxides: the relationship between time to breakdown and hot hole currents

Author

Ezaki, T. ; Nakasato, H. ; Yamamoto, T. ; Hane, M.

Author_Institution

Silicon Syst. Res. Labs., NEC Corp., Sagamihara, Japan

fYear

2000

fDate

2000

Firstpage

34

Lastpage

37

Abstract

We have investigated the relationship between the currents of hot holes injected into silicon dioxides and the time to breakdown (T_BD) characteristics. The hot hole currents were calculated by combining a tunnel current simulator and a silicon full-band Monte Carlo (FBMC) simulator. Our results show that the hot hole current seems to be responsible for oxide degradation and breakdown. Moreover, the additional impact ionization process where electrons are relaxed into the valence bands plays an important role in hot hole generation in the low-gate-voltage region

Keywords

Monte Carlo methods; dielectric thin films; electric breakdown; electron relaxation time; hot carriers; impact ionisation; integrated circuit modelling; integrated circuit reliability; silicon compounds; tunnelling; valence bands; SiO₂-Si; electron relaxation; hot hole current simulation; hot hole currents; hot hole generation; impact ionization process; low-gate-voltage region; oxide breakdown; oxide degradation; silicon full-band Monte Carlo simulator; time to breakdown; tunnel current simulator; ultra-thin silicon dioxides; valence bands; Anodes; Charge carrier processes; Degradation; Electric breakdown; Electrons; Hot carriers; Impact ionization; Laboratories; Silicon compounds; Tunneling;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Simulation of Semiconductor Processes and Devices, 2000. SISPAD 2000. 2000 International Conference on

Conference_Location

Seattle, WA

Print_ISBN

0-7803-6279-9

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/SISPAD.2000.871200

Filename

871200