Physical models of ultra thin oxide reliability in CMOS devices and implications for circuit reliability

An extensive review article on the physics of ultra-thin oxide breakdown in CMOS devices and circuits has recently been published (Stathis, IEEE Trans. Device and Materials Reliability, vol. 1, pp. 43-59, 2001, and Proc. 2001 Int. Reliability Physics Symp. p. 132, 2001.). This paper gives a brief summary and an update with some further comments on the subject.