Miranda, E;O'Connor, E;Cherkaoui, K;Monaghan, S;Long, R;O'Connell, D;Hurley, PK;Hughes, G;Casey, P

2009

July

Applied Physics Letters

Electrical characterization of the soft breakdown failure mode in MgO layers

Published

9 ()

GATE OXIDES STRESS CONDUCTION

95

The soft breakdown (SBD) failure mode in 20 nm thick MgO dielectric layers grown on Si substrates was investigated. We show that during a constant voltage stress, charge trapping and progressive breakdown coexist, and that the degradation dynamics is captured by a power-law time dependence. We also show that the SBD current-voltage (I-V) characteristics follow the power-law model I = aV(b) typical of this conduction mechanism but in a wider voltage window than the one reported in the past for SiO(2). The relationship between the magnitude of the current and the normalized differential conductance was analyzed. (C) 2009 American Institute of Physics. [DOI: 10.1063/1.3167827]

MELVILLE

0003-6951

10.1063/1.3167827