Ultra-thin dielectric breakdown in devices and circuits: A brief review

Time-dependent dielectric breakdown (TDDB), in which the traps in oxide bulk form a conducting path under application of stress voltage for long period of time, has emerged as one of the important sources of performance degradation in advanced devices. In this paper, we give an overview of the recent progress in the understanding of ultra-thin dielectric breakdown in devices and consider its impact at the circuit-level. From the device point of view, the breakdown (BD) phenomenon, including the BD statistics, trap generation models, and BD evolution in ultra-thin dielectric are presented followed by the recent studies on TDDB in high-k metal gate (HKMG) devices and magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) memories. On the circuit side, we explore methodologies for circuit lifetime assessment, the impact of TDDB on circuit performance degradation, and design techniques to improve circuit reliability.