Impact of mixing of disturbed bonding states on time-dependent dielectric breakdown in SiO2 thin films

A temperature-independent field acceleration parameter gamma and a field-independent activation energy Delta H-0 can be produced when different types of disturbed bonding states are mixed during time-dependent breakdown testing of SiO2 thin films. While gamma for each defect type alone has the expected 1/T dependence and Delta H-0 shows a linear decrease with electric field, a nearly temperature-independent gamma and a field-independent Delta H-0 can result when two or more states are mixed. (C) 1997 American Institute of Physics. [S0003-6951(97)04651-2].