Non-Gaussian behavior and anticorrelations in ultrathin gate oxides after soft breakdown

The time dependence of the gate voltage V-G(t) after soft breakdown of metal-oxide-semiconductor capacitors with a 2.4 nm SiO2 layer has been measured. It is found that the V-G(t) fluctuation distributions are non-Gaussian, but can be described by a Levy stable distribution. The long-range correlations in V-G(t) are investigated within the detrended fluctuation analysis. The Hurst exponent is found to be H = 0.25 +/- 0.04 independent of the value of the stress current density J. It is argued that these are universal features of soft breakdown and are due to trapping-detrapping of electrons in and away from the primary percolation path. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0003-6951(99)00111-4].