The Effect of Stress Interruption and Pulsed Biased Stress on Ultra-Thin Gate Dielectric Reliability

Published

December 31, 2000

Author(s)

Bin Wang, John S. Suehle, Eric M. Vogel, J B. Bernstein

Abstract

We studied the effects of stress interruption on the time-dependent dielectric breakdown (TDDB) Life distributions of 2.0 nm oxynitride gate dielectric films. TDDB tests using two different breakdown detection techniques were conducted at several gate voltages. Additional tests were conducted using unipolar and bipolar pulsed bias with pulse repetition frequencies up to 100 KHz to study the effects of pulsed bias on the lifetime of 2 nm films. Our results show that (1) stress interruption longer than 1s does not affect the defect generation and TDDB life distributions, (2) both current noise and the increase in low-voltage stress induced leakage current (SILC) detection techniques provide similar failure statistics for ultra-thin SiO₂ and (3) TDDB lifetime for ultra-thin gate dielectrics under unipolar biased stress do not substantially depend on pulse repetition frequencies less than 1 MHz, (4) however, we also report that TDDB lifetime for ultra-thin gate dielectrics under bipolar biased stress exhibit a frequency dependence.

Proceedings Title

2000 IIEEE International Integrated Reliability Workshop Final Report

Conference Dates

October 23-25, 2000

Conference Location

Lake Tahoe, CA, USA

Pub Type

Conferences

Keywords

reliability, TDDB, unipolar bipolar, SILC, breakdown detection

Citation

Wang, B. , Suehle, J. , Vogel, E. and Bernstein, J. (2000), The Effect of Stress Interruption and Pulsed Biased Stress on Ultra-Thin Gate Dielectric Reliability, 2000 IIEEE International Integrated Reliability Workshop Final Report, Lake Tahoe, CA, USA (Accessed October 11, 2025)