Degradation kinetics of thermal oxides

In this letter I propose a kinetics model of trap creation in thermal oxides under electrical stress. The model is based on the idea that electrons drifted in the oxide conduction band by the stress field undergo scattering by existing defects. The process controls the creation of additional traps. The kinetics model predicts a square root dependence on the stress time. Model results are validated by experimental data of stress induced leakage current. Defect concentrations calculated with my kinetics model were used in a trap-assisted model and yielded excellent fits of the low-field conductivity (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.