Degradation and Breakdown of Silicon Dioxide Films on Silicon

For many years, there has been a controversy over the mechanism responsible for destructive breakdown in silicon dioxide films. Although many previous models for "intrinsic" breakdown exist,l-3) only recently has the importance of hot electron kinetics in the oxide conduction band and the defects they create been directly shown to be correlated to oxide destruction. This work will review these recent results and show that the "interface softening" caused by the .continuous defect generation due to the hot carriers eventually triggers breakdown.