INTERPRETATION OF HIGH-FIELD CURRENT-VOLTAGE AND BREAKDOWN CHARACTERISTICS IN SOI SUBSTRATES FORMED USING SIMOX TECHNOLOGY

Current-voltage characteristics of thin buried oxide SOI material are shown to exhibit Fowler-Nordheim type conduction that is affected by f ield intensification arising from asperities at the interfaces. The co nduction is modelled to yield parameters that can be used to deduce in formation concerning the quality of the interface and the likely form of the asperities. For the soi material used in the experiments it is determined that the asperities at the body/buried oxide interface are larger and smoother than those at the substrate/buried oxide interface . It is also demonstrated that under some circumstances the effect of the breakdown can be used to estimate the size of the asperities