Temperature and Thickness dependence of cerium oxide dielectric breakdown

Temperature and thickness dependence of CeO2 dielectric breakdown characteristics in metal-oxide-semiconductor structures is studied. The dielectric breakdown strength of CeO2 decreases with increasing temperature. The Weibull slope of the charge-to-breakdown (Q(bd)) statistics is a function of dielectric thickness. No temperature dependence of the Weibull slope is observed. According to the cell-based analytic model, the effectively stress-induced defect size (a(0)) of CeO2 is obtained. The defect size is about 1-2 nm, which indicates the producing of neutral traps during the electrical stress. A comparison with SiO2 and HfO2-gated capacitors was made.