A comprehensive investigation of gate oxide breakdown of P+Poly/PFETs under inversion mode

Breakdown (BD) characteristics and electron transport across thin SiO<sub>2</sub> films has been thoroughly investigated for P+Poly-Si gate/PFET devices stressed under inversion mode. We resolve the anomalies in T<sub>BD</sub>/Q<sub>BD</sub> polarity dependence and shallower Weibull slopes commonly observed in PFET for T<sub>OX</sub>>2nm. For thin oxides (1.8nm<T<sub>OX</sub><2.9nm), Q<sub>BD</sub> data and Weibull slopes are found to be in excellent agreement with those of NFETs by considering valence-band electron tunneling. For ultra-thin oxides (T <sub>OX</sub><1.8nm), using an improved new BD detection methodology, the derived Q<sub>BD</sub> results show reasonable agreement with those of thick oxides