Surface Leakage of Zener Diode and Its Degradation Behaviour due to Diminishing Field Effect Passivation

This paper presents a study on the PN junction reversed leakage current of zener diode attributed to the surface recombination, and the drift behavior after reliability stress. The leakage current before stress can be correlated to the charges from a silicon nitride process which can be modulated by the film thickness. The degradation mechanism after Bias Temperature Stress due to the diminishing the field effect passivation by positive charges from silicon nitride process are discussed and illustrated in this paper.