Comparison of soft-breakdown triggers for large-area capacitors under constant voltage stress

Abstract

\u3cp\u3eThis work quantitatively compares soft breakdown identification methods for constant: voltage stress of large-area nMOS capacitors (up to 10 mm\u3csup\u3e2\u3c/sup\u3e) with 1.8- to 12-nm gate-oxide thickness with negative gate voltage. We conclude that in the studied range, breakdown is identified more reliably with a current step trigger than through increased current fluctuation. We present a method to quantify the system background noise, and show results of data filtering algorithms that significantly enhance the ratio between the breakdown signal and background noise level. Index Terms-CMOS, reliability, soft breakdown, TDDB.\u3c/p\u3