Successful enhancement of lifetime for SiO(2) on 4H-SiC by N(2)O anneal

Time-dependent dielectric breakdown (TDDB) measurement by constant current stress has been performed to investigate the oxide (SiO(2)) reliability grown on n-type 4H-SiC. At 300K, the intrinsic injected charge to breakdown (Q/BD/) of thermally grown SiO(2) in wet O(2) ambience is about 0.1 C/cm(2),...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE electron device letters 2004-11, Vol.25 (11), p.734-736
Main Authors: Fujihira, K, Miura, N, Shiozawa, K, Imaizumi, M, Ohtsuka, K, Takami, T
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:Time-dependent dielectric breakdown (TDDB) measurement by constant current stress has been performed to investigate the oxide (SiO(2)) reliability grown on n-type 4H-SiC. At 300K, the intrinsic injected charge to breakdown (Q/BD/) of thermally grown SiO(2) in wet O(2) ambience is about 0.1 C/cm(2), whereas N(2)O anneal after the thermal oxidation results in the drastic improvement of the reliability. The intrinsic Q/BD/ of N(2)O annealed SiO(2) is found to be 10 C/cm(2), which is two orders of magnitude larger than that of the oxide without N(2)O anneal, suggesting that the quality of SiO(2) and/or SiO(2)/SiC interface is improved. TDDB measurement has been also performed at high temperatures up to 423 K. The activation energy of oxide lifetime estimated from time to failure of 80% is 0.35 and 0.10 eV for the oxide with and without N(2)O anneal, respectively.
ISSN:0741-3106
DOI:10.1109/LED.2004.837533