A model for silicon-oxide breakdown under high field and current stress

Abstract

A recently developed self-consistent model for gate-oxide degradation due to charge injection, described in a companion paper, is expanded to include electrical ‘‘wear out’’ breakdown. In the present work, gate-oxide breakdown is defined to occur when the density of generated neutral trapping sites reaches a critical threshold value at the anode. Breakdown experimental results obtained under constant tunneling current are treated and simulated. The new model deals successfully with oxide breakdown dependence on: injection history, gate-oxide thickness, charge-injection current density, injection polarity reversal, gate electrode material, and oxide anneal temperatures.