Physical degradation of gate dielectrics induced by local electrical stress using conductive atomic force microscopy KU Leuven
Local electrical stress in gate dielectrics using conductive atomic force microscopy (C-AFM) induces structural damage in these layers. To allow C-AFM to become a mature technique to study oxide degradation, the impact of this structural damage, i.e., protrusions and holes, on the electrical behavior must be well understood. The physical nature and growth mechanism of protrusions due to a negative substrate voltage (V-s < 0) is, however, ...