Acceleration Factors for Thin Oxide Breakdown

Abstract

Time‐dependent dielectric breakdown (TDDB) data for 100Å of thermally grown have been analyzed using an Eyring model. The model has been found to describe the general features of the data: (i) an apparent activation energy which is a function of the stressing electric field, and (ii) a field acceleration parameter that is a function of temperature. Quantitatively, the model suggests the proper field dependence for the activation energy and the observed temperature dependence of the field acceleration in the 100Å oxide material. Because of a decrease (with increasing stress) in the spread (σ) of the time to fail data, acceleration factors derived from and are quite different. In the case of, the apparent activation energy is found to decrease from > 1 eV at low field stressing to < 0.3 eV at higher fields . Also, the field acceleration was found to be approximately 5 decades/MV/cm at room temperature, but it reduces to 2 decades/MV/cm at 150°C.