Estimating the Number of Defects in a Single Breakdown Spot of a Gate Dielectric
Artikel i vetenskaplig tidskrift, 2024

Conduction Atomic Force Microscopy (CAFM) is used to locally stress a 3.5 nm thick SiO2 film to induce soft dielectric breakdown (SBD). The tip-to-surface adhesion and current-voltage (I-V) characteristic at the breakdown location are measured by the CAFM before and after the SBD event. The adhesion force is enhanced after SBD because oxygen ion and charged defects are created at the SBD location during stressing which increases the adhesion via image charge forces. We show that the change in adhesion force, supported by charge transport modeling of the I-V data, can be effectively used to estimate the density and number of defects (~20-30) generated during SBD at a single breakdown spot. The information could be useful to assess the post-breakdown reliability and performance variability of the device.

Dielectric breakdown

SiO2

atomic force microscopy

memristor

image charge

charge transport modeling

Författare

Alok Ranjan

Chalmers, Fysik, Nano- och biofysik

Andrea Padovani

Universita Degli Studi Di Modena E Reggio Emilia

Behnood Dianat

Universita Degli Studi Di Modena E Reggio Emilia

Nagarajan Raghavan

Singapore University of Technology and Design

Kin Leong Pey

Singapore University of Technology and Design

S. J. O'Shea

Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR)

IEEE Electron Device Letters

0741-3106 (ISSN) 15580563 (eISSN)

Vol. 45 5 809-812

Ämneskategorier

Annan elektroteknik och elektronik

DOI

10.1109/LED.2024.3375952

Mer information

Senast uppdaterat

2024-05-18