New reduction mechanism of the stress leakage current based on the deactivation of step tunneling sites for thin oxide films

This paper describes a new reduction mechanism of the stress induced leakage current that is induced by step tunneling of electrons through the step tunneling sites. The concept of this mechanism is based on the deactivation of step tunneling sites for thin oxide. It is verified that the deactivation is electrically realized by the injected electrons into the sites. It is because the step tunneling probability of electrons though the deactivated sites is suppressed, since the electron capture cross section of the neutralized deactivation sites becomes extremely low. The deactivation scheme is as follows: (l)The deactivation of tunneling sites can be realized that the tunneling sites trapped holes change to neutralized tunneling sites due to electrons injection. (2) The injected electron can deactivate the activation tunneling sites only under energy level than the energy level of the injected electrons. It is shown that the above reduction phenomenon can be quantifiably with formulation. These results are very important for high reliable thin oxide films and for high performance ULSI.