Conduction Mechanism On Insulator Thin Films

Conduction mechanisms on insulators
Guerrero A. University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus, 2022
Introduction
The dielectric film applications have always been a very important subject for the
semiconductor industry and the scientific community. Especially for metal-oxide
semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET) technology in integrated circuits (IC).
MOSFET is based on the channel carrier modulation by an applied gate voltage across
a thin dielectric. Dielectric materials are nearly insulators since the electrical conductivity
is very low and the energy band gap is large. In general, the energy band gap of insulators
is larger than 3 or 5 𝑒𝑉. At 0 𝐾, the valence band is completely filled and the conduction
band is completely empty. Thus, there is no carrier for electrical conduction. When the
temperature increases more than 0 𝐾, some thermally excited electrons will jump from
the valence band and also from the donor impurity level to the conduction band. These
electrons will contribute to the current transport of the dielectric material. At the same
time, some holes will be created by acceptor impurities and vacancies will be left by
excited electrons in the valence band. The conduction current of insulators depends on
the applied electric field. Their conductivities are low, on the order of
10−20 ~10−8 Ω−1 𝑐𝑚−1. These conduction currents lead to many different conduction
mechanisms, which are critical to the applications of the dielectric films. For example, the
gate dielectric of MOSFETs, the capacitor dielectric of dynamic random-access
memories, and the tunneling dielectric of flash memories are important to the IC’s. The
conduction current must meet specific reliability level under normal operation of the
devices. Consequently, the conduction mechanisms research leads to the success of the
integrated circuits. Among the conduction mechanisms being investigated, some depend
on the electrical properties at the electrode-dielectric contact. These conduction
mechanisms are called electrode-limited conduction mechanisms or injection-limited
conduction mechanisms. There are other conduction mechanisms which depend only on
the properties of the dielectric itself. These conduction mechanisms are called bulk-limited
1
conduction mechanisms or transport-limited conduction mechanisms. A summary of the
conduction mechanisms is shown in table 1.
Table 1.
Conduction mechanisms
Electrode-limited conduction mechanisms Bulk-limited conduction mechanisms
-Schottky emission -Space Charge limited conduction
-Tunneling -Ionic conduction
-Intrinsic conduction -Poole-Frenkel emission
Next, we describe the most relevant of each conduction mechanism. The expressions
and formulas can be found in detail on [1].
Schottky emission
Is a conduction mechanism where the electrons can obtain enough energy provided by
thermal activation, the electrons in the metal will overcome the energy barrier at the metal-
dielectric interface to go to the dielectric. It is called also thermionic emission. It is one of
the most often observed conduction mechanism at high temperatures.
Tunneling
It cannot occur classically but is rather a quantum mechanical effect. It involves the charge
transport through an insulating medium separating two conductors placed very close. The
insulator can be 30 Angstroms thickness. Its applications can be found in the scanning
tunneling microscope, tunneling transistors, and others.
Intrinsic conduction
It occurs as a direct electronic excitation from the valence to conduction band. It is
negligible at low temperatures since energy band gap is large on insulators.
Space Charge limited conduction

This mechanism occurs because the carrier injection rate from the contact exceeds the
rate of charge passing through the film. A non-linear conduction effect can be seen since
a space-charge cloud is created. At low levels of carrier injection, Ohm’s law is obeyed.
This conduction mechanism can be reduced by present traps.
2
Ionic conduction
It refers to the ionic rather than electronic motion at high temperatures. They require high
activation energies to develop nearly diffusive jumps. This phenomenon conducts to
operating instabilities in field transistors.
Poole-Frenkel emission
Thermal excitation of electrons may emit from traps into the conduction band of the
dielectric. Therefore, this emission is sometimes called the internal Schottky emission.
Considering a trapped electron, the Coulomb potential energy can be reduced by an
applied electric field across the dielectric film. It may increase the probability of thermally
excited the electron out of the trap into the conduction band of the dielectric.
References
[1] The material science of thin films, Milton Ohring, 1992
[2] A Review on Conduction Mechanisms in Dielectric Films, Fu-Chien Chiu, 2014
[3] Electronic Conduction Mechanisms in Insulators, Tsung-Han Chiang and John F.

Wager, Fellow, IEEE, 2018

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Conduction mechanisms on insulators

Guerrero A. University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus, 2022

Space Charge limited conduction

[1] The material science of thin films, Milton Ohring, 1992

[2] A Review on Conduction Mechanisms in Dielectric Films, Fu-Chien Chiu, 2014

[3] Electronic Conduction Mechanisms in Insulators, Tsung-Han Chiang and John F.

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