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Breakdown Characteristics of Ultra-Thin Gate Oxides Caused by Plasma Charging

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 February 2011

Chi-Chun Chen ,
Horng-Chih Lin ,
Chun-Yen Chang ,
Chao-Hsin Chien  and
Tiao-Yuan Huang
Chi-Chun Chen
Affiliation:
Institute of Electronics, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan
Horng-Chih Lin
Affiliation:
National Nano Device Laboratories, Hsinchu, Taiwan Email: [email protected]
Chun-Yen Chang
Affiliation:
Institute of Electronics, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan
Chao-Hsin Chien
Affiliation:
Institute of Electronics, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan
Tiao-Yuan Huang
Affiliation:
Institute of Electronics, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan National Nano Device Laboratories, Hsinchu, Taiwan Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

Breakdown characteristics of ultra-thin gate oxides caused by plasma charging were studied in this work. It is observed that as oxide thickness is scaled down to 4 nm, some traditional monitor parameters may lose their sensitivity for detecting oxide degradation induced by plasma charging damage, due to insignificant trap generation. Even the gate leakage current, although sensitive for 4 nm oxide, may no longer be sensitive enough for even thinner oxide (e.g., 2.6 nm), due to the existence of large tunneling current. Moreover, several soft-breakdown events were found to occur in ultrathin oxide before the final onset of a catastrophic hard-breakdown. Finally, an equivalent local oxide thickness is calculated using local oxide thinning model to estimate the stepwise increase of gate current after soft-breakdown event.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 567: Symposium R – Ultrathin SiO2 and Higg-K Materials for ULSI Gate Dielectrics , 1999 , 313
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1999

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References

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