Temperature-induced voltage drop rearrangement and its effect on oxide breakdown in metal-oxide-semiconductor capacitor structure

This work studies the breakdown (BD) characteristics of metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) capacitors at various temperatures. The oxide thickness and temperature significantly affect the probability of BD. BD does not easily occur in ultrathin silicon dioxide when biased in the positive substrate injection region of MOS(p). However, the BD frequency increases dramatically with the oxide thickness or the temperature. The phenomenon was explained by temperature effect. When the temperature increases, the voltage drop across the silicon dioxide increases; on the contrary, the voltage across the (deep) depletion region in the Si substrate declines. Also, the enhancement of percolation and the increase in the number of interface states result in the more severe degradation of the silicon dioxide. Also, a thicker oxide has more Dit, and so undergoes degradation more easily. Finally, the C-V characteristics of the MOS capacitor in the (deep) depletion region are also discussed in order to understand the mechanisms among temperature, thickness, and percolation effect. © 2005 American Institute of Physics.