Electron trapping/detrapping within thin SiO2 films in the high field tunneling regime

Abstract

The work presents the essential features of a model for the electrical behavior of thin SiO2 films in the high field tunneling regime. In particular the carrier trapping/detrapping phenomena, taking place within the insulator and responsible for the current time dependence at constant applied voltages, are considered: the suggestion is proposed that all the oxide Si-O bonds take active part in such processes and explanations are consequently derived for some aspects of previous works not yet convincingly interpreted. The results of a computer program implementing the model are also presented and shown to be in satisfactory agreement with experimental curves which can be fit with a single variable parameter