Exploratory observations of post‐breakdown conduction in polycrystalline‐silicon and metal‐gated thin‐oxide metal‐oxide‐semiconductor capacitors

The post‐breakdown conduction of thin‐oxide metal‐oxide‐semiconductor structures with different gate electrodes and substrates is studied. Due to the extreme localization of the breakdown, many breakdown events can be produced in one capacitor during a constant voltage stress. In some cases, these events have been found to be reversible and this suggests that the breakdown is a reversible phenomenon (i.e., that the breakdown is a reversible switching between two conduction states of different conductivities). This reversibility is further supported by the observation of bistable conduction in the post‐breakdown I‐V characteristic when the breakdown current is externally limited. The experimental results are interpreted assuming that the breakdown is a three‐stage process (degradation‐breakdown‐thermal effects), and a simple phenomenological model is presented. The role of the gate electrode (chromium, aluminum, or polycrystalline‐silicon) and that of the substrate doping are analyzed within this framework...

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