Role of positive trapped charge in stress-induced leakage current for flash EEPROM devices

Abstract

The transient behavior of hot hole (HH) stress-induced leakage current (SILC) in tunnel oxides is investigated. The dominant SILC mechanism is positive oxide charge-assisted tunneling (PCAT). The transient effect of SILC is attributed to positive oxide charge detrapping and thus the reduction of PCAT current. A correlation between SILC and stress-induced substrate current is observed. Our study shows that both SILC and stress-induced substrate current have power law time-dependence t(-n) with the power factor n about 0.7 and 1, respectively. Numerical analysis for PCAT current incorporating a trapped charge caused Coulombic potential in the tunneling barrier is performed to evaluate the time-and field-dependence of SILC and the substrate current. Based on our model, the evolution of threshold voltage shift with read-disturb time in a Flash EEPROM cell is derived. Finally, the dependence of SILC on oxide thickness is explored. As oxide thickness reduces from 100 Angstrom to 53 Angstrom, the dominant SILC mechanism is found to change from PCAT to neutral trap-assisted tunneling (TAT).