Dielectric breakdown of SiO/sub 2/ formed by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition of tetraethoxysilane

In the present study, in order to estimate the intrinsic breakdown strength precisely, the self-healing technique was used with 1 /spl mu/s-width pulse voltages. The effect of point defects on the intrinsic breakdown strength is discussed based on the knowledge of optical properties obtained with synchrotron radiation.