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Bimodal Dielectric Breakdown in Electronic Devices Using Chemical Vapor Deposited Hexagonal Boron Nitride as Dielectric
Author(s) -
Palumbo Felix,
Liang Xianhu,
Yuan Bin,
Shi Yuanyuan,
Hui Fei,
Villena Marco A.,
Lanza Mario
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
advanced electronic materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.25
H-Index - 56
ISSN - 2199-160X
DOI - 10.1002/aelm.201700506
Subject(s) - materials science , dielectric , chemical vapor deposition , boron nitride , conductive atomic force microscopy , optoelectronics , electrical conductor , graphene , dielectric strength , nanotechnology , composite material , atomic force microscopy
Multilayer hexagonal boron nitride (h‐BN) is an insulating 2D material that shows good interaction with graphene and MoS 2 , and it is considered a very promising dielectric for future 2D‐materials‐based electronic devices. Previous studies analyzed the dielectric properties of thick (>10 nm) mechanically exfoliated h‐BN nanoflakes (diameter < 20 μm) via conductive atomic force microscopy and applying very high voltages (>10 V); however, these methods are not scalable. In this work, the first device‐level reliability study of large area h‐BN dielectric stacks (grown via chemical vapor deposition) is presented, and the complete dielectric breakdown (BD) process is described. The experiments and calculations indicate that the BD process in metal/h‐BN/metal devices starts with a progressive current increase across the h‐BN stack until current densities up to 0.1 A cm −2 are reached. After that, the currents increase by sudden steps, which can be large (>1 order of magnitude, related to the BD of one/few h‐BN layers) or small (<1 order of magnitude, related to the lateral propagation of the BD). The bimodal BD process of h‐BN here presented (which cannot be detected via conductive atomic force microscopy) is essential to understand the reliability of 2D‐material‐based electronic devices using h‐BN as dielectric.