Investigation of ultra-thin SiO/sub 2/ gate oxide characteristics

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the characteristics of ultra-thin gate oxide The oxide breakdown behavior and leakage current of 3-6 nm ultrathin gate oxide was mainly investigated. It shows that the thinner the gate oxide is, the higher the breakdown electric field is. Also when the thickness of the gate oxide is lower than 6 nm, there is soft breakdown under Constant Current Stress (CCS). After soft breakdown occurs, the Stress Induced Leakage Current (SILC) will be obviously enhanced. The influence of different gate oxide thickness, MOS capacitance areas and current stresses on the oxide breakdown behavior was discussed in detail.