Stress conditions to study the reliability characteristics of high-k nanolaminates

Abstract

Constant voltage stressing is a standard technique to test the reliability characteristics of dielectrics used as gate insulator in MOS structures. In this work, the importance of choosing the appropriate voltage to perform stress measurements is assessed. Based on the particular dielectric permittivities and thicknesses, different operating regions in Al2O3, HfO2 and nanolaminates of both materials in terms of their breakdown voltages were established. Preliminary results seem to indicate that there is a strongly relationship between the Weibull breakdown statistics and the applied stress voltage.