Differentiation between electric breakdowns and dielectric breakdown in thin silicon oxides

Author

Jackson, J.C. ; Robinson, T. ; Oralkan, O. ; Dumin, D.J. ; Brown, G.A.

Author_Institution

Clemson Univ., SC, USA

fYear

1997

fDate

21-25 Jul 1997

Firstpage

146

Lastpage

151

Abstract

It has been known for some time that non-destructive electric breakdowns precede destructive thermal dielectric breakdown. We have been studying both processes in oxides between 5 nm and 80 nm in thickness. We have shown that the electric breakdowns can trigger dielectric breakdown under certain conditions. This triggering of dielectric breakdown causes TDDB distributions to be non-unique. The TDDB distributions could be shifted to shorter times if (a) the impedance of the test equipment was lowered and/or (b) the capacitance of the test equipment was raised. The implications of this work are discussed in terms of electric/dielectric breakdown models and practical circuit and device operation

Keywords

dielectric thin films; electric breakdown; silicon compounds; 5 to 80 nm; SiO; TDDB distributions; breakdown models; constant voltage results; destructive thermal dielectric breakdown; dielectric breakdown triggering; electric breakdowns; nondestructive electric breakdown; ramped voltage results; thin silicon oxides; time-dependent dielectric breakdown; Breakdown voltage; Capacitance; Circuit testing; Dielectric breakdown; Dielectric measurements; Electric breakdown; Electric variables measurement; Electrical resistance measurement; Silicon; Test equipment;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Physical & Failure Analysis of Integrated Circuits, 1997., Proceedings of the 1997 6th International Symposium on

Print_ISBN

0-7803-3985-1

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IPFA.1997.638180

Filename

638180