• Electrical & Electronic Materials
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.57-63
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• 1994

Aluminum oxide($Al_2{O_3}$) offers some unique advantages over the conventional silicon dioxide( $SiO_{2}$) gate insulator: greater resistance to ionic motion, better radiation hardness, possibility of obtaining low threshold voltage MOS FETs, and possibility of use as the gate insulator in nonvolatile memory devices. We have undertaken a study of the dielectric breakdown of $Al_2{O_3}$ on Si deposited by GAIVBE technique. In our experiments, we have varied the $Al_2{O_3}$ thickness from 300.angs. to 1400.angs. The resistivity of $Al_2{O_3}$ films varies from 108 ohm-cm for films less than 100.angs. to 10$_{13}$ ohm-cm for flims on the order of 1000.angs. The flat band shift is positive, indicating negative charging of oxide. The magnitude of the flat band shift is less for negative bias than for positive bias. The relative dielectric constant was 8.5-10.5 and the electric breakdown fields were 6-7 MV/cm(+bias) and 11-12 MV/cm (-bias).