Electric Field Question

[saefroch]

I need to calculate the resistance of an oxide layer in a circuit, but the resistivity of the oxide layer is highly dependent on the electric field strength (see here). I'm unfamiliar with this problem. How do I calculate the strength of the electric field at the oxide layer?

[Technician1002]

Are you sputtering Aluminum Oxide on a Silicon wafer? In my field we do use sputter dep and CVD for thin films. Are you looking at memory and need to know the decay rate, or is this for an insulator for an RC network? This may be a question to pass along to the thin film folks. The voltage gradient is dependant on the applied voltage and film thickness. Low gradients are low leakage.

I think what you are looking for is the voltage gradient in volts/micron to find the voltage for your problem. Thin films use lower voltages. Thick films are higher voltage with the same voltage gradient so the resistance would be the same. For example a film 500nm at 3 volts will have the same gradient as a 1 micron film at 6 volts and thus the twice the resistance while the leakage current will be the same.

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[jackssmirkingrevenge]

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[Technician1002]

At the magnification that uses, simply preventing vibration with a room full of press was very difficult. An Atom does not have to move far to be a blur.

[saefroch]

Naw, not sputtering (though that would make this far more interesting). This thread of little import anymore, but it had to to with the oxide layer that forms on aluminium under normal atmospheric conditions.