Charge injection in thin dielectric layers by atomic force microscopy: influence of geometry and material work function of the AFM tip on the injection process

Charge injection and retention in thin dielectric layers remain critical issues for the reliability of many electronic devices because of their association with a large number of failure mechanisms. To overcome this drawback, a deep understanding of the mechanisms leading to charge injection close to the injection area is needed. Even though the charge injection is extensively studied and reported in the literature to characterize the charge storage capability of dielectric materials, questions about charge injection mechanisms when using atomic force microscopy (AFM) remain open. In this paper, a thorough study of charge injection by using AFM in thin plasma-processed amorphous silicon oxynitride layers with properties close to that of thermal silica layers is presented. The study considers the impact of applied voltage polarity, work function of the AFM tip coating and tip curvature radius. A simple theoretical model was developed and used to analyze the obtained experimental results. The electric field distribution is computed as a function of tip geometry. The obtained experimental results highlight that after injection in the dielectric layer the charge lateral spreading is mainly controlled by the radial electric field component independently of the carrier polarity. The injected charge density is influenced by the nature of electrode metal coating (work function) and its geometry (tip curvature radius). The electron injection is mainly ruled by the Schottky injection barrier through the field electron emission mechanism enhanced by thermionic electron emission. The hole injection mechanism seems to differ from the electron one depending on the work function of the metal coating. Based on the performed analysis, it is suggested that for hole injection by AFM, pinning of the metal Fermi level with the metal-induced gap states in the studied silicon oxynitride layers starts playing a role in the injection mechanisms.