Thick gate oxide extrinsic breakdown – The potential role of neutral hydrogen atom

Published

October 20, 2022

Author(s)

Kin (Charles) Cheung

Abstract

Power electronics is currently a hot topic due to its important role in fighting climate change. Gate oxide breakdown is the Achilles heel of power devices and it is well known that extrinsic breakdown is the real concern. However, the root cause of extrinsic breakdown is poorly understood. Recently, a "lucky defect" model was introduced to explain extrinsic breakdown beyond the traditional "local thinning" model. In this work, the "lucky defect" model is further developed to allow it to examine the responsible defect's energy distribution. It is found that only defects with energy 1.5eV ± 0.3eV above the substrate conduction band can produce the breakdown distributions commonly reported. Few know defect can satisfy this requirement. An exception is the neutral hydrogen atom, and its known properties are consistent with experimental results in the literature. If confirmed, this is a very surprising result and has important implication on how to remedy extrinsic breakdown.

Citation

Power Electronic Devices and Components

Volume

4

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pedc.2022.100024

Local Download

Keywords

thick oxide, extrinsic breakdown, atomic hydrogen, trap-assisted-tunneling

Citation

Cheung, K. (2022), Thick gate oxide extrinsic breakdown – The potential role of neutral hydrogen atom, Power Electronic Devices and Components, [online], https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pedc.2022.100024, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=935200 (Accessed April 26, 2024)