Enhanced EBAC localization of gate oxide defects after high voltage electron beam irradiation

Abstract

Electron Beam (EB) irradiation with high acceleration voltage is widely reported to have resulted in significant degradation on transistor parametric performances. Therefore, high voltage EB should be avoided during nanoprobing transistor device characterization. There are many studies that mainly emphasize on prevention, cause, and consequences of such detrimental effects but rarely focus on the exploitation of these EB effects. In fact, high voltage EB could possibly leverage to enhance nanoscale fault isolation. In this paper, it was discovered that high voltage EB effects can be utilized to enhance the EBAC localization of Gate Oxide breakdown defects. Three successful case studies are described to demonstrate these enhancements on P-type and N-type MOSFET gate oxide defect isolation through the suppression on the gate leakage by high voltage EB induced charge trapping mechanism.