Effect of oxidation-induced stacking faults on dielectric breakdown characteristics of thermal silicon dioxide

The dielectric breakdown characteristics of thermal silicon dioxide has been qualitatively and quantitatively correlated with grown-in and thermally induced defects in Czochralski silicon wafers. It is shown that grown-in latent stacking faults and SiO2 precipitates have little effect on oxide integrity, but stacking faults without any involvement of metallic impurities greatly degrade oxide integrity. Although more stacking faults can result in poorer oxide integrity, the correlation between oxide breakdown degradation and stacking fault density is not straightforward.