Study of electronic transport and breakdown in thin insulating films
Abstract
This report summarizes the results obtained in a research program directed toward a basic understanding of electronic transport, charge trapping, and dielectric breakdown in thin (500-3,000 A) silicon dioxide films thermally grown on silicon substrates. The research techniques that we have developed and utilized are applicable to other insulating films, but up to this time we have concentrated on the properties of thermally grown SiO2 films because of the importance of the Si/SiO2 in modern solid-state circuits. The program consisted of a number of coordinated investigations which included studies of charge injection, transport, and trapping in which the injection of charge carriers into the insulator was induced by corona charging of the surface of the insulator, the study of the instability at the onset of breakdown and of catastropic breakdown itself by the self-quenching technique, the probing of trapping centers in the insulating film by charge-discharge techniques using equipment which we developed especially for this purpose, studies of charge transport and trapping using an electron beam for carrier injection, studies of lateral nonuniformities in MIS structures by electrical measurement techniques and by use of a scanning electron microscope, and theoretical modeling of hot-electron transport and of localized breakdown.
- Publication:
-
Princeton Univ. Report
- Pub Date:
- May 1976
- Bibcode:
- 1976prnc.reptR....J
- Keywords:
-
- Dielectrics;
- Electron Radiation;
- Insulation;
- Thin Films;
- Dielectric Properties;
- Electron Irradiation;
- Quenching (Cooling);
- Silicon;
- Silicon Dioxide;
- Electronics and Electrical Engineering