The effect of surface roughness of Si/sub 3/N/sub 4/ films on TDDB characteristics of ONO films

Author

Tanaka, Hiroyuki ; Uchida, Hidetsugu ; Hirashita, Norio ; Ajioka, Tsuneo

Author_Institution

Oki Electric Ind. Co. Ltd., Tokyo, Japan

fYear

1992

fDate

March 31 1992-April 2 1992

Firstpage

31

Lastpage

36

Abstract

The surface roughness of Si/sub 3/N/sub 4/ films was found to become higher and to cause degradation of time-dependent dielectric breakdown (TDDB) characteristics of ONO films with increasing deposition temperature of Si/sub 3/N/sub 4/ films. A local thinning of ONO films, evaluated from the TDDB characteristics, agreed with the surface roughness measured by the atomic force microscope (AFM) and the cross-sectional transmission electron microscope. The dependence of the time to breakdown of ONO films on the deposition temperature was interpreted by electric field intensification due to the surface roughness of Si/sub 3/N/sub 4/ films.<>

Keywords

atomic force microscopy; dielectric thin films; electric breakdown of solids; semiconductor-insulator boundaries; silicon compounds; surface topography; transmission electron microscope examination of materials; ONO films; Si-Si/sub 3/N/sub 4/-Si; Si/sub 3/N/sub 4/ films; SiO/sub 2/-Si/sub 3/N/sub 4/-SiO/sub 2/; TDDB characteristics; atomic force microscope; cross-sectional transmission electron microscope; deposition temperature; electric field intensification; local thinning; polysilicon gate capacitors; surface roughness; time-dependent dielectric breakdown; Atomic force microscopy; Atomic measurements; Degradation; Dielectric breakdown; Force measurement; Rough surfaces; Semiconductor films; Surface roughness; Temperature; Transmission electron microscopy;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Reliability Physics Symposium 1992. 30th Annual Proceedings., International

Conference_Location

San Diego, CA, USA

Print_ISBN

0-7803-0473-X

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/RELPHY.1992.187619

Filename

187619