Constant Electric Field Study of Time Dependent Dielectric Breakdown in a Low-k Interlevel Dielectric

TDDB in low k dielectrics have been the subject of intense study as it has been identified as a reliability risk over the past decade. As a result it is important to understand the physics of failure such that the behavior exhibited in accelerated tests can be applied to use conditions. At one point there were at least 7 physical models that fit the experimental data reasonably well, but each was based on different interpretations of the physics of failure.