ABSTRACT
This chapter demonstrates an investigation of charge accumulation in Si3N4/SiO2 dielectric stacks in comparison with that in a single-layer SiO2 dielectric for the purpose of controlling dielectric charging to improve the reliability of electrostatically actuated nano-electromechanical systems (NEMS)/micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) membrane devices. In such NEMS/MEMS devices containing dielectric materials, dielectric charging always occurs when there is a strong electric field. The charge accumulation behavior in different dielectrics was investigated by using the insulator–semiconductor (MIS) capacitor structure instead of an actual NEMS/MEMS membrane device. It is well known that charge accumulation in dielectric of an MIS structure can be evaluated by C-V measurement. The C–V curves were measured for all the samples by performing a voltage sweep from -20 to 20 V and applying a small-signal alternating current voltage with a frequency of 100 kHz. The chapter investigates the charge transport mechanism in a general MIS capacitor structure under high bias voltage.
