The Study on the Trap Density in Thin Silicon Oxide Films

In this paper, the stress and transient currents associated with the on and off time of applied voltage were used to measure the density and distribution of high voltage stress induced traps in thin silicon oxide films. The transient currents were due to the discharging of traps generated by high stress voltage in the silicon oxides. The trap distributions were relatively uniform near both cathode and anode interface. The trap densities were dependent on the stress polarity. The stress generated trap distributions were relatively uniform the order of $10^{11}\sim10^{21}$[states/eV/$cm^2$] after a stress. The trap densities at the oxide silicon interface after high stress voltages were in the $10^{10}\sim10^{13}$[states/eV/$cm^2$]. It appear that the stress and transient current that flowed when the stress voltage were applied to the oxide was caused by carriers tunneling through the silicon oxide by the high voltage stress generated traps.