Observation of leakage sites in a hafnium silicon oxynitride gate dielectric of a metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor device by electron-beam-induced current

Abstract

Leakage sites in hafnium silicon oxynitride gate dielectrics of metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors were directly identified by means of electron-beam-induced current (EBIC) technique. Leakage sites were observed as bright spots mostly on the periphery of gate. With the gate bias increasing, the EBIC current of bright spots increased exponentially, but the number of bright spots did not increase.