A detailed study of the phenomena of high field stress-induced leakage
current in thin oxide (5.0-8.0 nm) metal-oxide-semiconductor capacito
rs has been undertaken. The dependence of the stress leakage on the st
ressing electric field and the oxide thickness were obtained. The resu
lts show that the stressing voltage, rather than the electric field, i
s the dominant factor for determining stress-induced leakage. Furtherm
ore, a threshold exists for the stressing voltage, below which no stre
ss-induced leakage occurs. Since the voltage is directly related to th
e electron energy, these findings are consistent with a model where el
ectrons of energy above a threshold are required to produce the observ
ed stress leakage.