The reliability of the gate oxide in microelectronics, i.e., the ability of a thin film of this material to retain its excellent dielectric properties while subjected to high electric fields, has been a perennial concern over the last 40-45 years. Two dominant gate oxide failure mechanisms, dielectric breakdown and the negative bias instability, have continued to cause concern as MOSFET devices have scaled to nanometer dimensions.
By: James H. Stathis
Published in: Proceedings of the 12th International Symposium on the Physical and Failure Analysis of Integrated Circuits. Piscataway, NJ, , IEEE. , p.127-30 in 2005
Please obtain a copy of this paper from your local library. IBM cannot distribute this paper externally.
Questions about this service can be mailed to reports@us.ibm.com .