Potentials and direct current in Si-(20 to 40 Å)SiO2-metal structures

The effects of oxide thickness and interface states on potentials in and direct currents through MOS structures with various metal contacts on 20–40 Å thick SiO₂ films and nondegenerate Si were investigated using a recently developed method of determining surface potential vs. bias and interface state vs. energy distributions of such structures from conventional admittance measurements. For Cr, Cu, and Mg contacts, the interface states are predominantly of acceptor type. The metal silicon work function differences are φ_MS = 0.91 V for Au, −0.04 for Cr, 0.18 for Cu, and −1.07 V for Mg. The forward device current consists mainly of majority carriers emitted over the Si barrier and tunneling through the oxide into the metal for depletion or weak inversion of Si, and of majority carriers tunneling from Si through the oxide into the metal for Si accumulation. Excess currents in forward and reverse direction are caused by carrier generation-recombination in interface states and tunneling through the oxide to and from the metal. The drooping of the forward current, deviating strongly from an ideal exponential characteristic, is mainly caused by the drop of a considerable part of the applied bias across the oxide layer.