Anode hole injection, defect generation, and breakdown in ultrathin silicon dioxide films

Using a variety of experimental techniques, hot holes are demonstrated to produce bulk and interfacial defect sites in silicon dioxide layers of metal-oxide-semiconductor structures. Similar to defect production by hot electrons, hot holes are shown to generate these sites by the energy they deposit in contacting silicon layers near the oxide interface. This deposited energy is believed to release hydrogenic species which can move into and through the oxide layer producing defects. The buildup of these defect sites is related to the destructive breakdown of ultrathin gate oxides in p-channel field-effect transistors under inversion conditions where direct tunneling of energetic holes to the gate electrode would occur and dominate the current in the external circuit at low gate voltages. However, the results presented here are inconsistent with current reliability models which use anode hole injection to explain destructive breakdown of the oxide layer in n-channel field-effect transistors where hole currents are small relative to electron currents. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.