A quantitative analysis of stress-induced leakage currents and extraction of trap properties in 6.8 nm ultrathin silicon dioxide films

An analytical model for the quantitative analysis of stress-induced leakage currents (SILC) in ultrathin silicon dioxide films is described, which enables the extraction of trap parameters, e.g., trap site location. Assuming a two-step trap-assisted inelastic tunneling mechanism, the conduction of electrons through the silicon dioxide film proceeds as follows: First, electrons tunnel from the cathode into neutral trap sites followed by an energy relaxation into the lowest available energy state of these trap sites. Finally, the electrons reach the anode by a direct tunneling process. We applied this model to the SILC characteristics of a stressed 6.8 nm ultrathin silicon dioxide film. The following parameters could be deduced: The trap sites are located at 4.47 nm relative to the cathode interface with a trapped sheet charge density of |6.54×10^-8| C/cm², and a trap state energy of 2.3 eV relative to the conduction band edge of the silicon dioxide.