Dielectric breakdown I: A review of oxide breakdown

This paper gives an overview of the dielectric breakdown in thin oxide layers on silicon. First test methods are discussed, followed by their application to the estimation of the oxide lifetime. The main part of the paper is devoted to the physical background of the intrinsic breakdown. Finally, defect-related or extrinsic breakdown is discussed

Nanopore Fabrication by Controlled Dielectric Breakdown

Nanofabrication techniques for achieving dimensional control at the nanometer scale are generally equipment-intensive and time-consuming. The use of energetic beams of electrons or ions has placed the fabrication of nanopores in thin solid-state membranes within reach of some academic laboratories, yet these tools are not accessible to many researchers and are poorly suited for mass-production. Here we describe a fast and simple approach for fabricating a single nanopore down to 2-nm in size with sub-nm precision, directly in solution, by controlling dielectric breakdown at the nanoscale. The method relies on applying a voltage across an insulating membrane to generate a high electric field, while monitoring the induced leakage current. We show that nanopores fabricated by this method produce clear electrical signals from translocating DNA molecules. Considering the tremendous reduction in complexity and cost, we envision this fabrication strategy would not only benefit researchers from the physical and life sciences interested in gaining reliable access to solid-state nanopores, but may provide a path towards manufacturing of nanopore-based biotechnologies.Comment: 19 pages, 4 figures. Supplementary information contains 22 pages, 11 figures and 2 tables - A version of this manuscript was first submitted for publication on April 23rd, 2013. It is currently under review at another journa

Degradation and breakdown characteristics of thin MgO dielectric layers

MgO has been suggested as a possible high-k dielectric for future complementary metal-oxide semiconductor processes. In this work, the time dependent dielectric breakdown (TDDB) characteristics of 20 nm MgO films are discussed. Stress induced leakage current measurements indicate that the low measured Weibull slopes of the TDDB distributions for both n-type and p-type devices cannot be attributed to a lower trap generation rate than for SiO2. This suggests that much fewer defects are required to trigger breakdown in MgO under voltage stress than is the case for SiO2 or other metal-oxide dielectrics. This in turn explains the progressive nature of the breakdown in these films which is observed both in this work and elsewhere. The reason fewer defects are required is attributed to the morphology of the films

Anisotropic Dielectric Breakdown Strength of Single Crystal Hexagonal Boron Nitride

Dielectric breakdown has historically been of great interest from the perspectives of fundamental physics and electrical reliability. However, to date, the anisotropy in the dielectric breakdown has not been discussed. Here, we report an anisotropic dielectric breakdown strength (EBD) for h-BN, which is used as an ideal substrate for two-dimensional (2D) material devices. Under a well-controlled relative humidity, EBD values in the directions both normal and parallel to the c axis (EBD+c & EBD//c) were measured to be 3 and 12 MV/cm, respectively. When the crystal structure is changed from sp3 of cubic-BN (c-BN) to sp2 of h-BN, EBD+c for h-BN becomes smaller than that for c-BN, while EBD//c for h-BN drastically increases. Therefore, h-BN can possess a relatively high EBD concentrated only in the direction parallel to the c axis by conceding a weak bonding direction in the highly anisotropic crystal structure. This explains why the EBD//c for h-BN is higher than that for diamond. Moreover, the presented EBD value obtained from the high quality bulk h-BN crystal can be regarded as the standard for qualifying the crystallinity of h-BN layers grown via chemical vapor deposition for future electronic applications

Design And Fabrication Of A Surface-Wave Accelerator Based On Silicon Carbide

The principles and electromagnetic simulations of a novel accelerating structure are described. The structure is planar, consisting of two plates of silicon carbide (SiC) separated by a vacuum gap. Charged particle bunches are accelerated in the vacuum gap by the surface electromagnetic waves (phonon polaritons) localized near the vacuum/SiC interface. The structure can be powered by a carbon dioxide (CO2) laser with the wavelength lambda(0) approximate to 10.6mum. The operating wavelength is dictated by the frequency-dependent dielectric permittivity epsilon(omega) of SiC which is negative for the frequencies in the CO2 tunability range. The resulting accelerator can support accelerating fields well in excess of 1 GeV/m without breakdown, and provide the path to compact and inexpensive particle accelerators. The challenge of coupling radiation into a very narrow (a few microns) vacuum gap is resolved by designing a coupling grating on the top surface of a Si wafer, and attaching a thin SiC film to the bottom of the wafer. Preliminary fabrication results are reported.Physic

Defect Induced Aging and Breakdown in High-k Dielectrics

abstract: High-k dielectrics have been employed in the metal-oxide semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs) since 45 nm technology node. In this MOSFET industry, Moore’s law projects the feature size of MOSFET scales half within every 18 months. Such scaling down theory has not only led to the physical limit of manufacturing but also raised the reliability issues in MOSFETs. After the incorporation of HfO2 based high-k dielectrics, the stacked oxides based gate insulator is facing rather challenging reliability issues due to the vulnerable HfO2 layer, ultra-thin interfacial SiO2 layer, and even messy interface between SiO2 and HfO2. Bias temperature instabilities (BTI), hot channel electrons injections (HCI), stress-induced leakage current (SILC), and time dependent dielectric breakdown (TDDB) are the four most prominent reliability challenges impacting the lifetime of the chips under use. In order to fully understand the origins that could potentially challenge the reliability of the MOSFETs the defects induced aging and breakdown of the high-k dielectrics have been profoundly investigated here. BTI aging has been investigated to be related to charging effects from the bulk oxide traps and generations of Si-H bonds related interface traps. CVS and RVS induced dielectric breakdown studies have been performed and investigated. The breakdown process is regarded to be related to oxygen vacancies generations triggered by hot hole injections from anode. Post breakdown conduction study in the RRAM devices have shown irreversible characteristics of the dielectrics, although the resistance could be switched into high resistance state.Dissertation/ThesisDoctoral Dissertation Electrical Engineering 201

Role of electron and hole trapping in the degradation and breakdown of SiO2 and HfO2 films

We investigated possible mechanisms for correlated defect production in amorphous (a) SiO 2 and HfO 2 films under applied stress bias using ab initio simulations. During bias application, electron injection into these films may lead to the localization of up to two electrons at intrinsic trapping sites which are present due to the natural structural disorder in amorphous structures. Trapping two electrons weakens Si-O and Hf-O bonds to such an extent that the thermally activated creation of Frenkel defects, O vacancies and O 2- interstitial ions, becomes efficient even at room temperature. Bias application affects defect creation barriers and O 2- interstitial diffusion. The density of trapping sites is different in a-SiO 2 and a-HfO 2 . This leads to qualitatively different degradation kinetics, which results from different correlation in defect creation in the two materials. These effects affect TDDB statistics and its dependence on the film thickness

Development of high-damage threshold dispersive coatings

Whether it is to form an optical cavity, to control dispersion, or merely to transport the laser beam, multilayer mirrors are fundamental components of every ultrafast laser system. The performance of current state of the art ultrafast high-power lasers in terms of pulse energy is often restrained by optical breakdown of multilayer coatings. One way to overcome this problem is to increase the size of the laser beam, but this is usually undesirable, as it rises the costs and the footprint of the laser system. Therefore, increasing the optical resistance of multilayer mirrors is essential to the development of cost- and space-efficient lasers. In turn, this requires a thorough understanding of the mechanisms behind optical damage. In this work, we have studied the ultrafast optical breakdown of dispersive mirrors, as well as that of other multilayer thin-films, in three different regimes: (i) at 500 Hz repetition rate with 30 fs pulses, at a central wavelength of 800nm; (ii) at 11:5MHz repetition rate with 1 ps pulses, at 1030 nm; (iii) at 5 kHz repetition rate with 1:4 ps pulses at 1030 nm. The results from (ii) and (iii) have been compared side by side. In addition, a novel technique for dispersion measurements has been developed. In the femstosecond regime, the samples have been: single layer coatings made of Au; Ag; Nb2O5; SiO2;Ta2O5 and mixtures of Ta2O5 with silica in different concentrations; and different dispersive coatings, consisting of SiO2 as the low-index material and different high-index materials (Nb2O5; Ta2O5; HfO2). We have also given a suggestion as to what is the best approach to increase the damage threshold of thin-film dielectric coatings. The ultrafast optical breakdown of multilayer thin-films has been investigated at MHz repetition rate and high average power. The optical breakdown threshold of three different types of coatings has been measured. All samples have been coated with either TiO2, Ta2O5, HfO2, or Al2O3 as high-index material and with SiO2 as low-index material. The same samples have been measured also at kHz repetition rate. The results obtained in both regimes have been compared. The band gap dependencies of damage threshold in both cases were linear. However, the one retrieved at kHz rate was steeper than its MHz counterpart. This is an interesting finding, which must be investigated further. The developed method for dispersion measurements has been based on the location of resonance peaks in a Fabry-Perot-type of interferometer. By simultaneously processing data obtained at different spacer thicknesses, we were able to obtain superior resolution compared to the conventional method