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Advanced Modeling of Oxide Defects

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Bias Temperature Instability for Devices and Circuits

Abstract

During the last couple of years, there is growing experimental evidence which confirms charge trapping as the recoverable component of BTI. The trapping process is believed to be a non-radiative multiphonon (NMP) process, which is also encountered in numerous physically related problems. Therefore, the underlying NMP theory is frequently found as an important ingredient in the youngest BTI reliability models. While several different descriptions of the NMP transitions are available in literature, most of them are not suitable for the application to device simulation. In this chapter, we will present a rigorous derivation that starts out from the microscopic Franck–Condon theory and yields generalized trapping rates accounting for all possible NMP transitions with the conduction and the valence band in the substrate as well as in the poly-gate. Most importantly, this derivation considers the more general quadratic electron–phonon coupling contrary to several previous charge trapping models. However, the pure NMP transitions do not suffice to describe the charge trapping behavior seen in time-dependent defect spectroscopy (TDDS). Inspired by these measurements, we introduced metastable states, which have a strong impact on the trapping dynamics of the investigated defect. It is found that these states provide an explanation for plenty of experimental features observed in TDDS measurements. In particular, they can explain the behavior of fixed as well as switching oxide hole traps, both regularly observed in TDDS measurements.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    It is stressed that the term “hole capture” refers to either a capture of hole from the valence band into a trap or an emission of an electron from the trap into the valence band. Keep in mind that both of these processes are equivalent from a physical point of view.

  2. 2.

    Note that electron emission corresponds to hole capture into the substrate conduction band.

  3. 3.

    Note that the same term “switching trap level” is also used for the thermodynamic trap level for a switching oxide hole trap introduced in Fig. 16.1.

  4. 4.

    Keep in mind that the term “transition” does not refer to the duration of the physical process itself, such as the time it takes an electron to tunnel through an energy barrier. It rather denotes the mean time until the physical process takes place and the defect change its state.

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Acknowledgements

This work has received funding from the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) project n∘ 23390-N24 and the European Communities FP7 n∘ 261868 (MORDRED).

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  1. Institute for Microelectronics, TU Vienna, Gusshausstrasse 27-19, 1040, Vienna, Austria

    Wolfgang Goes, Franz Schanovsky & Tibor Grasser

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Correspondence to Wolfgang Goes .

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  1. Institute for Microelectronics, Technische Universität Wien, Wien, Austria

    Tibor Grasser

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Goes, W., Schanovsky, F., Grasser, T. (2014). Advanced Modeling of Oxide Defects. In: Grasser, T. (eds) Bias Temperature Instability for Devices and Circuits. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7909-3_16

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