SCANNING FORCE TUNNELING MICROSCOPY AS A NOVEL TECHNIQUE FOR THE STUDY OF NANOMETER-SCALE DIELECTRIC-BREAKDOWN OF SILICON-OXIDE LAYER

Scanning force/tunneling microscopy (AFM/STM) was proposed as a novel technique to investigate local dielectric breakdown voltage for the silicon oxide layer. It was manifested that this novel technique could simultaneously measure surface topography and distribution of dielectric breakdown voltage with nanometer-scale resolution. We confirmed that the dielectric breakdown voltage measured with the AFM/STM increased monotonously with the increase in oxide thickness. In addition to the above results, we observed that the oxide layer with visible defect had a lower dielectric breakdown voltage.