Statistical Model for Radiation-Induced Wear-Out of Ultra-Thin Gate Oxides After Exposure to Heavy Ion Irradiation.

In this work, we present an original model to explain the accelerated wear-out behavior of irradiated ultra-thin oxides. The model uses a statistical approach to the breakdown occurrences based on a nonhomogeneous Poisson process. By means of our model, we can estimate the number and the lime evolution of those damaged regions produced by ion hits that generate break- down spots during high field stresses after irradiation, including the dependence on the oxide field. Also, by using the proposed model, we have studied the wear-out dependence on the stress voltage, gate area, and ion fluence. In particular, by studying the stress voltage dependence of wear-out acceleration, it is feasible to extrapolate the device lifetime even at low operating voltage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]