Conductive Atomic Force Microscopy Studies on the Reliability of Thermally Oxidized SiO2/4H-SiC

Patrick Fiorenza; Raffaella Lo Nigro; Vito Raineri; Dario Salinas

doi:10.4028/www.scientific.net/MSF.556-557.501

Paper Titles

Atomic Crack Defects Developing at Silicon Carbide Surfaces Studied by STM, Synchrotron Radiation-Based μ-spot XPS and LEEM
p.481

Sodium Enhanced Oxidation of Si-Face 4H-SiC: A Method to Remove Near Interface Traps
p.487

Ab Initio Study of Clean and Hydrogen-Saturated Unreconstructed SiC{0001} Surfaces
p.493

An Approach to Model Temperature Effects of Interface Traps in 4H-SiC
p.497

Conductive Atomic Force Microscopy Studies on the Reliability of Thermally Oxidized SiO₂/4H-SiC
p.501

Electronic Properties of Thermally Oxidized Single-Domain 3C-SiC/6H-SiC Grown by Vapour-Liquid-Solid Mechanism
p.505

Ellipsometric and MEIS Studies of 4H-SiC/Si/SiO₂ and 4H-SiC/SiO₂ Interfaces for MOS Devices
p.509

Etching of 4° and 8° 4H-SiC Using Various Hydrogen-Propane Mixtures in a Commercial Hot-Wall CVD Reactor
p.513

Formation of Deep Traps at the 4H-SiC/SiO₂ Interface when Utilizing Sodium Enhanced Oxidation
p.517

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Conductive Atomic Force Microscopy Studies on the Reliability of Thermally Oxidized SiO₂/4H-SiC

Abstract:

The nano-characterization of thermal oxides grown on 4H-SiC is for the first time presented and analysed to derive its reliability. The dielectric breakdown (BD) kinetics of silicon dioxide (SiO2) thin films thermally grown on 4H-SiC has been determined by comparison between I-V measurements on large-area (up to 1.96×10-5 cm2) metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) structures and conductive atomic force microscopy (C-AFM) with a resolution of a few nanometers. C-AFM clearly images the weak breakdown single spots under constant voltage stresses. The stress time on the single C-AFM tip dot has been varied from 1×10-3 to 1×10-1 s. The density of BD spots, upon increasing the stress time, exhibits an exponential trend. The Weibull slope and the characteristic time of the dielectric BD events were so determined by direct measurements at nanometer scale demonstrating that the percolation model is valid for thin thermal oxide layers on 4H-SiC (5-7nm), but it fails for larger thicknesses (10 nm).