Electric Field Dependence of Charge Build-up Mechanisms and Breakdown Phenomena in Thin Oxides During Fowler-Nordheim Injection

The electric field dependence of the charge build-up mechanisms and its correlation to breakdown phenomena in thin oxides during Fowler-Nordheim electron injections has been investigated. The charge to breakdown decrease versus the electric field has been quantitatively attributed to the increase of the trapping efficiency, for various oxide thicknesses ranging between 5.5 nm and 10 nm. A relationship between the trapping efficiency and the stressing current density has been obtained which allows the accurate prediction of the time to breakdown at various stress levels, as has been inferred by Constant Current Stress (CCS) experiments. Moreover, these results suggest that the CCS time to breakdown follows a ``1/E´´ model in agreement with the bulk oxide trapping processes.