Correction for stress induced leakage current in dielectric reliability evaluations
AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation
InventorsSteven W. Mittl, Ernest Y. Wu
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Abstract
Methods, apparatus, and computer program products for evaluating current transients measured during an electrical stress evaluation of a dielectric layer in a semiconductor device. Measured current transients are fit to an equation representing a time dependence for stress induced leakage currents. The measured current transients are corrected based upon stress currents computed from the equation to define corrected current transients.
Claims22
An apparatus comprising:
- at least one processor;
- and
- a memory coupled with the at least one processor, the memory including program code configured to be executed by the processor to evaluate current transients measured during an electrical stress evaluation of a dielectric layer in a semiconductor device, the program code including instructions to:
- fit the measured current transients to an equation representing a time dependence for stress induced leakage currents;
- correct the measured current transients by, for each measured current transient greater than the stress current computed from the equation, subtracting the stress current computed from the equation from the respective measured current transient to define corrected current transients;
- and
- direct changes to a fabrication process manufacturing the semiconductor device based upon the corrected current transients.
A computer program product for evaluating current transients measured during an electrical stress evaluation of a dielectric layer in a semiconductor device, the computer program product comprising:
- a non-transient computer readable storage medium;
- and
- computer readable program code embodied in the non-transient computer readable storage medium, the computer readable program code comprising instructions to:
- fit the measured current transients to an equation representing a time dependence for stress induced leakage currents;
- correct the measured current transients by, for each measured current transient greater than the stress current computed from the equation, subtracting the stress current computed from the equation from the respective measured current transient to define corrected current transients;
- and
- direct changes to a fabrication process manufacturing the semiconductor device based upon the corrected current transients.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.