Three-Dimensional Mechanistic Modeling of Time-Dependent Dielectric Breakdown in Polycrystalline Thin Films

Time-dependent dielectric breakdown (TDDB) is a crucial issue for the dielectric reliability. In this work, we present a full three-dimensional mechanistic model for calculation of the TDDB process in polycrystalline thin films. The model is based on the multiphonon trap-assisted tunneling theory and takes into account the intrinsic three-dimensional discreteness of traps at the dielectric grain boundaries. The leakage current density is calculated by solving coupled three-dimensional master equation and Poisson equation. The net phonon emission associated with each charge trapping and release event is treated as a local point heat source, which then enters the Fourier heat equation for three-dimensional temperature distribution calculation. The generated trap is determined by local temperature and electric field, which is subsequently included in the next round of calculation of electric and thermal properties. A positive feedback loop gradually leads to an increase of trap density, temperature, and leakage current density, and finally the dielectric breakdown. Our model can, to a good approximation, reproduce the experimental leakage current density-voltage characteristics and the Weibull distribution of time to breakdown at different dielectric thicknesses, stress voltages, and environmental temperatures. We find that in realistic devices, the three-dimensional trap-to-trap transport of electrons contributes a non-negligible part to the leakage current when the dielectric approaches breakdown. Our approach of three-dimensional mechanistic simulation is computationally efficient such that evolution of ${10}^{3}$ traps during the TDDB process can be easily performed on a standard desktop computer.