Improved model for the stress-induced leakage current in thin silicon dioxide based on conduction-band electron and valence-band electron tunneling

Abstract

This article presents a detailed investigation on the stress-induced leakage current (SILC) conduction mechanism via conduction-band electron (CBE) and valence-band electron (VBE) tunneling in thin oxides. An improved SILC model that is able to reproduce the experimental SILC over a wide range of oxide fields, and yet give a realistic level of extracted neutral trap concentration, is proposed. Calculations performed with the improved SILC model suggest that SILC conduction via neutral traps is accompanied by energy relaxation (i.e., an inelastic mechanism), irrespective of the origin (i.e., whether CBE or VBE) of the tunneling species. For both CBE and VBE tunneling, inelastic tunneling with energy relaxation (E relax) of 1.5 and 0.8 eV, was found to fit the experimental measurements well. These values of E relax agree with those reported in the literature. © 2002 American Institute of Physics.