‘‘Turn-around’’ effects of stress-induced leakage current of ultrathin N2O-annealed oxides
- 31 July 1995
- journal article
- research article
- Published by AIP Publishing in Applied Physics Letters
- Vol. 67 (5) , 673-675
- https://doi.org/10.1063/1.115199
Abstract
Studies of the thickness dependence on stress‐induced leakage current (SILC) have been performed in the thickness range of 41 to 87 Å for N2O‐annealed and O2‐grown oxides. N2O‐annealed oxide shows significantly reduced SILC leakage currents. Furthermore, SILC currents were found to increase with decreasing oxide thickness, as reported earlier. However, a ‘‘turn‐around’’ effect at ∼50 Å has been observed in these films. SILC currents begin to decrease when oxide thickness is scaled below 50 Å. This turn‐around effect can be explained using the trap‐assisted tunneling model. For thicknesses equal or less than 41 Å, defect‐related current and direct tunneling current become dominant over SILC current. Our results indicated that for N2O‐based oxides in the ultrathin thickness regime, stress‐induced leakage currents become less significant.Keywords
This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: