Investigation of the importance of interface and bulk limited transport mechanisms on the leakage current of high dielectric constant thin film capacitors

The importance of interface and bulk transport mechanisms on the leakage current of high dielectric constant thin film capacitors is examined by deriving an equation for the J–VA characteristic of a capacitor that includes the transport mechanisms of thermionic emission (TE), thermionic field emission (TFE), and carrier drift–diffusion (DD). The current is controlled by the slowest of three effective velocity parameters v1md, vD, and ṽ2dm characterizing electron injection into the dielectric at the cathode by TE and TFE, carrier DD in the film bulk, and electron ejection from the dielectric at the anode by TE and TFE, respectively. The effective velocity parameters are evaluated for a Pt/BST/Pt thin film capacitor that has been exposed to forming gas and it is shown that the dominant transport mechanism is interface limited TFE from the cathode with negligible influence of carrier transport by DD in the film bulk. Implications of these results on existing transport calculations for high dielectric constant thin film capacitors are discussed.