Restoration of postbreakdown gate oxide by white-light illumination

• Main Authors: Kawashima, Tomohito, Yew, Kwang Sing, Zhou, Yu, Ang, Diing Shenp, Bera, Milan Kumar, Zhang, Haizhong
• Other Authors: School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2018
• Subjects: CMOS Memory; Gate Oxide Breakdown
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/86729; http://hdl.handle.net/10220/45199
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

From conductive-atomic-force-microscope probe measurement, we show that electrical conduction through a nanoscale percolation path in the MOSFET gate oxide can be disrupted, either completely or partially, by white-light illumination. This phenomenon is consistently observed in the SiO2 and HfO2 gate-oxide materials, and thus is believed to have originated from a common mechanism-light-stimulated oxygen migration and recombination with vacancy sites that constitute the percolation path. The finding points to the prospect of reliability rejuvenation by the light-assisted restoration of postelectrical-breakdown gate oxides, as well as light-enabled memory operation based on logic MOSFET devices.