Field-Emission Breakdown and Electromigration in Insulated Planar Nanoscopic Contacts

Planar nanoscopic contacts are observed to undergo early electrical breakdown. The authors show that the cause is high field emission capable of triggering electromigration. The phenomenon is well described by an empirical current-voltage law, well different from that usually found in nonflat field...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE transactions on electron devices 2006-12, Vol.53 (12), p.2958-2964
Main Authors: Bramanti, A., Maruccio, G., Visconti, P., D'Amico, S., Cingolani, R., Rinaldi, R.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Applied sciences
Contacts
electric breakdown
electromigration
electron emission
Electronics
Exact sciences and technology
Semiconductor electronics. Microelectronics. Optoelectronics. Solid state devices
Vacuum microelectronics
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Planar nanoscopic contacts are observed to undergo early electrical breakdown. The authors show that the cause is high field emission capable of triggering electromigration. The phenomenon is well described by an empirical current-voltage law, well different from that usually found in nonflat field emitters; this is attributed to the particular geometry of the contacts. Although the mathematical form of the law is always the same, the intensity of breakdown current changes from sample to sample, ranging over several orders of magnitude; this is explained by the nanoscopic roughness of the emitting surfaces. They also show that the occurrence of breakdown may be dependent on the polarity of the applied voltage
ISSN:0018-9383
1557-9646
DOI:10.1109/TED.2006.885659