Conduction mechanism and origin of stress‐induced leakage current in thin silicon dioxide films

The conduction mechanism and origin of the electrical stress‐induced leakage current (SILC) in thin silicon dioxide (SiO2) films thermally grown on silicon substrate were clarified from various electrical properties. The properties examined consisted of the I‐V characteristics, the oxide trap charge buildup, the generation of the Si/SiO2 interface states, and the generation of the neutral oxide traps. The electrical properties were obtained from films of different oxide thicknesses fabricated by different oxidation processes. The conduction mechanism of SILC was investigated from the viewpoint of oxide thickness dependence, using 92‐ and 56‐A‐thick oxide films. From the oxide‐thickness‐dependent studies it was found that the SILC phenomenon was not correlated with the oxide trap charge buildup and interface state generation, but rather closely correlated with neutral electron trap generation. The conduction mechanism for nonequilibrium SILC was theoretically deduced from one‐dimensional ballistic triangul...

[1]  James Stasiak,et al.  Trap creation in silicon dioxide produced by hot electrons , 1989 .

[2]  J. K. Srivastava,et al.  Low‐temperature growth of silicon dioxide films: A study of chemical bonding by ellipsometry and infrared spectroscopy , 1987 .

[3]  M. Kimura.  Generation phenomena of localized interface states induced by irradiation and post‐irradiation annealing at the Si/SiO2 interface , 1993 .

[4]  B. Riccò,et al.  High‐field‐induced voltage‐dependent oxide charge , 1986 .

[5]  T. Ning,et al.  Optically induced injection of hot electrons into SiO2 , 1974 .

[6]  H. Koyama,et al.  Si/SiO2 interface states and neutral oxide traps induced by surface microroughness , 1995 .

[7]  T. Ning.  Capture cross section and trap concentration of holes in silicon dioxide , 1976 .

[8]  Douglas A. Buchanan,et al.  Hot-electron-induced hydrogen redistribution and defect generation in metal-oxide-semiconductor capacitors , 1994 .

[9]  A. G. Revesz,et al.  Chemical and Structural Aspects of the Irradiation Behavior of SiO2 Films on Silicon , 1977, IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science.

[10]  M. Heyns,et al.  Determination of tunnelling parameters in ultra-thin oxide layer poly-Si/SiO2/Si structures , 1995 .

[11]  E. Cartier,et al.  MECHANISM FOR STRESS-INDUCED LEAKAGE CURRENTS IN THIN SILICON DIOXIDE FILMS , 1995 .

[12]  David L. Griscom,et al.  Diffusion of radiolytic molecular hydrogen as a mechanism for the post‐irradiation buildup of interface states in SiO2‐on‐Si structures , 1985 .

[13]  Tak H. Ning,et al.  Electron trapping at positively charged centers in SiO2 , 1975 .

[14]  Andreas Schenk,et al.  Field and high‐temperature dependence of the long term charge loss in erasable programmable read only memories: Measurements and modeling , 1995 .

[15]  J. Maserjian,et al.  Observation of positively charged state generation near the Si/SiO2 interface during Fowler–Nordheim tunneling , 1982 .

[16]  Akihiko Ishitani,et al.  SiO2 / Si Interface Structures and Reliability Characteristics , 1995 .

[17]  C. Sah,et al.  Origin of Interface States and Oxide Charges Generated by Ionizing Radiation , 1976, IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science.

[18]  Akira Toriumi,et al.  Stress‐induced leakage current in ultrathin SiO2 films , 1994 .

[19]  D. Dimaria,et al.  Determination of insulator bulk trapped charge densities and centroids from photocurrent‐voltage charactersitcs of MOS structures , 1976 .

[20]  C. Hu,et al.  Stress-induced oxide leakage , 1991, IEEE Electron Device Letters.

[21]  B. Riccò,et al.  High-field-induced degradation in ultra-thin SiO/sub 2/ films , 1988 .

[22]  Tadahiro Ohmi,et al.  Time-Dependent Dielectric Degradation (TDDD) Influenced by Ultrathin Film Oxidation Process , 1996 .

[23]  D. J. Dumin,et al.  Correlation of stress-induced leakage current in thin oxides with trap generation inside the oxides , 1993 .

[24]  A. El-Hdiy.  Positive charge and interface state generation in a thin gate oxide (30 nm) metal‐oxide‐semiconductor capacitor , 1994 .