New insights in the relation between electron trap generation and the statistical properties of oxide breakdown

In this paper it is demonstrated in a wide stress field range that breakdown in thin oxide layers occurs as soon as a critical density of neutral electron traps in the oxide is reached. It is proven that this corresponds to a critical hole fluence, since a unique relationship between electron trap generation and hole fluence is found independent of stress field and oxide thickness. In this way literature models relating breakdown to hole fluence or to trap generation are linked. A new model for intrinsic breakdown, based on a percolation concept, is proposed. It is shown that this model can explain the experimentally observed statistical features of the breakdown distribution, such as the increasing spread of the Q/sub BD/-distribution for ultrathin oxides. An important consequence of this large spread is the strong area dependence of the Q/sub BD/ for ultrathin oxides.

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