Nishant Saini , Davide Tierno , Kristof Croes , Valeri Afanas’ev , Jan Van Houdt
{"title":"Experimental study of time-dependent dielectric degradation by means of random telegraph noise spectroscopy","authors":"Nishant Saini , Davide Tierno , Kristof Croes , Valeri Afanas’ev , Jan Van Houdt","doi":"10.1016/j.sse.2024.108877","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Time-dependent dielectric breakdown (TDDB) is commonly used to assess dielectric failures. However, TDDB provides limited insights into the physics of dielectric degradation. In this paper, we explore the potential of random telegraph noise (RTN) spectroscopy to study the physics of dielectric breakdown. RTN is a fluctuation in the dielectric leakage current due to capture/emission of injected electrons by dielectric traps. We report an RTN study of large-area alumina (<span><math><mrow><msub><mrow><mtext>Al</mtext></mrow><mrow><mn>2</mn></mrow></msub><msub><mrow><mtext>O</mtext></mrow><mrow><mn>3</mn></mrow></msub></mrow></math></span>) thin films. A stress experiment is performed on a fresh sample, where RTN is measured before, during and after stress. Important degradation signatures are identified in the RTN spectra. The degradation imposed by the applied stress is observed as a consistent transition between two distributions, where the RTN transitions from an initial pre-stress Gaussian, to a final post-stress exponential. A calculation of the noise entropy, which generally increases with growing material disorder, confirms the transition to an exponential distribution. Finally, we relate the RTN distribution parameters to the defectivity of the dielectric.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":21909,"journal":{"name":"Solid-state Electronics","volume":"214 ","pages":"Article 108877"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4000,"publicationDate":"2024-02-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Solid-state Electronics","FirstCategoryId":"101","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0038110124000261","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"ENGINEERING, ELECTRICAL & ELECTRONIC","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Time-dependent dielectric breakdown (TDDB) is commonly used to assess dielectric failures. However, TDDB provides limited insights into the physics of dielectric degradation. In this paper, we explore the potential of random telegraph noise (RTN) spectroscopy to study the physics of dielectric breakdown. RTN is a fluctuation in the dielectric leakage current due to capture/emission of injected electrons by dielectric traps. We report an RTN study of large-area alumina () thin films. A stress experiment is performed on a fresh sample, where RTN is measured before, during and after stress. Important degradation signatures are identified in the RTN spectra. The degradation imposed by the applied stress is observed as a consistent transition between two distributions, where the RTN transitions from an initial pre-stress Gaussian, to a final post-stress exponential. A calculation of the noise entropy, which generally increases with growing material disorder, confirms the transition to an exponential distribution. Finally, we relate the RTN distribution parameters to the defectivity of the dielectric.
期刊介绍:
It is the aim of this journal to bring together in one publication outstanding papers reporting new and original work in the following areas: (1) applications of solid-state physics and technology to electronics and optoelectronics, including theory and device design; (2) optical, electrical, morphological characterization techniques and parameter extraction of devices; (3) fabrication of semiconductor devices, and also device-related materials growth, measurement and evaluation; (4) the physics and modeling of submicron and nanoscale microelectronic and optoelectronic devices, including processing, measurement, and performance evaluation; (5) applications of numerical methods to the modeling and simulation of solid-state devices and processes; and (6) nanoscale electronic and optoelectronic devices, photovoltaics, sensors, and MEMS based on semiconductor and alternative electronic materials; (7) synthesis and electrooptical properties of materials for novel devices.