Gate oxide degradation assessment by electrical stress and capacitance measurements

In this paper, the reliability of thick SiO
₂
gate oxides is assessed using quasi-static and multi-frequency capacitance measurements after constant current stress. A comprehensive study of oxide wear-out is presented, highlighting trapping mechanisms and switching states generation occurring during stress at high electric fields. Measurements are performed on furnace grown and HTO-based oxides and the correlation with lifetimes extrapolated from time-dependent dielectric breakdown is discussed.