Electrical breakdown spots in metal-aluminum oxide-metal structures

Metal-aluminum oxide-metal structures are prepared by evaporation in vacuum on silicon wafers using Au, Cu or Pd on top and Al as bottom electrode. The aluminum oxide layer is deposited by electron beam evaporation with a thickness of 200 nm. The diameter of the top electrode is varied between 0.1 a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE transactions on dielectrics and electrical insulation 2020-08, Vol.27 (4), p.1080-1085
Main Authors: Kliem, Herbert, Faliya, Kapil
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
AFM
Aluminum
Aluminum oxide
breakdown spots
Capacitance
cold fusion
Copper
Diameters
Dielectric relaxation
Electric breakdown
Electrical faults
Electrodes
Electron beams
Evaporation
Gold
hydrogen
metal-aluminum oxide-metal structures
Palladium
partial electrical breakdown
Silicon
Silicon wafers
Voltage measurement
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Summary:Metal-aluminum oxide-metal structures are prepared by evaporation in vacuum on silicon wafers using Au, Cu or Pd on top and Al as bottom electrode. The aluminum oxide layer is deposited by electron beam evaporation with a thickness of 200 nm. The diameter of the top electrode is varied between 0.1 and 1.9 mm. Capacitance measurements reveal a relaxational dielectric permittivity as expected for aluminum oxide. Applying ramp voltages results in single breakdown spots on the electrode before the structure finally becomes conductive. The breakdown spots, as characterized with an AFM, are in the form a crater, reaching 500 nm into the silicon. However, for the smallest electrode, the calculated electrostatic energy stored in the capacitance is not high enough to form the craters.
ISSN:1070-9878
1558-4135
DOI:10.1109/TDEI.2020.008526