Point contact conduction at the oxide breakdown of MOS devices
- 28 November 2002
- conference paper
- Published by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
- Vol. 21 (01631918) , 191-194
- https://doi.org/10.1109/iedm.1998.746318
Abstract
Experiment and simulation are combined to demonstrate that, provided that thermal effects are limited, the dielectric breakdown of SiO/sub 2/ films in MOS devices opens atomic-size conduction channels (with radius in the 1 to 10 nm range) which behave as point contacts. Depending on the size of the breakdown spot, the conduction properties are either those of a Sharvin point contact or those of a quantum point contact.Keywords
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