Disturbed bonding states in SiO2 thin-films and their impact on time-dependent dielectric breakdown

A temperature-independent field acceleration parameter gamma and a field-independent activation energy Delta Ho can result when different types of disturbed bonding states are mixed during time-dependent dielectric breakdown (TDDB) testing of SiO2 thin films. While gamma for each defect type alone has the expected 1/T dependence and Delta Ho shows a linear decrease with electric field, a nearly temperature-independent gamma and a field-independent Delta Ho can result when two or more disturbed bonding states are mixed. These observations suggest strongly that the oxygen vacancy is an important intrinsic defect for breakdown and that-field, not current, is the cause of TDDB under low-field conditions.