Lifetime of SiN Capacitors Determined from Ramped
Voltage
and Constant Voltage Testing
H. C. Cramer, J. D. Oliver, and R. J. Porter
Northrop Grumman, Electronic Systems
PO Box 1521 M/S 3K13,
harlan.cramer@ngc.com Phone
Keywords: capacitor, dielectric breakdown, lifetime,
ramped voltage, constant voltage, Linear Field Model, Reciprocal Field Model
Abstract
Understanding
SiN capacitor dielectric integrity and reliability is becoming increasingly
more important. For wide-bandgap
semiconductor MMIC circuits bias voltages continue to increase: up to 40 or 50
volts for GaN HFET or MMIC devices and up to 100 V for SiC. Prior work on SiN dielectrics [1,2]
emphasized applications for GaAs pHEMT and HBT devices where the applied
voltages are around 5-15V. This paper
reports on a study comparing the analysis methods and reliability determined
from ramped voltage and constant voltage capacitor testing using both the
Linear Field and Reciprocal Field Models in an attempt to characterize
capacitor dielectrics.