Observation of Latent Reliability Degradation in Ultra-Thin Oxides after Heavy-Ion Irradiation

Published

February 18, 2002

Author(s)

John S. Suehle, Bin Wang, J. F. Conley, Eric M. Vogel, Peter Roitman, C E. Weintraub, A. H. Johnston, J B. Bernstein

Abstract

Constant voltage breakdown distributions of Time-Dependent-Dielectric-Breakdown (TDDB) were obtained for both non-irradiated and irradiated 3.0 and 3.2 nm thick SiO² films subjected to ⁶⁰Co gamma irradiation and heavy ions of 823 MeV ¹²⁹ Xe (Linear Energy Transfer [LET], =59 MeV-cm²/mg). The gamma irradiation had no affect on oxide lifetime. The heavy ion irradiation substantially reduced oxide life even though the devices were biased at 0.0 V during the irradiation. The reduction of oxide lifetime under constant voltage stress conditions was a strong function of the heavy ion fluence.

Citation

Applied Physics Letters

Volume

80

Issue

7

Pub Type

Journals

Keywords

heavy-ion irradiation, reliability, oxide breakdown, radiation effects, microelectronics

Citation

Suehle, J. , Wang, B. , Conley, J. , Vogel, E. , Roitman, P. , Weintraub, C. , Johnston, A. and Bernstein, J. (2002), Observation of Latent Reliability Degradation in Ultra-Thin Oxides after Heavy-Ion Irradiation, Applied Physics Letters (Accessed October 15, 2025)