We extend the McPherson model for silicon-oxygen bond-breakage in a way to capture the impact of the O-Si-O angle fluctuations on the breakage rate. It is shown that the mean rate is more than 5 times higher and its standard deviation is comparable to the nominal rate corresponding to the fixed angle (typical for α-quartz). The mean rate has appeared to grow exponentially with the electric fiel...

Device simulations of the silicon microstrip detectors that will equip the Tracking System of the GLAST experiment have been performed. The influence on the electric characteristics of both strip pitch and width have been evaluated. First, a DC calculation is done to predict the risk of breakdown within the working bias conditions. Then, the backplane and interstrip capacitances are estimated b...

Due to the wide band gap energy and high breakdown electric field of GaN, heterostructure transistors made from it are promising candidates for high power and high frequency applications. However, one issue that prevents the wide deployment of GaN HEMTs is their reliability. Research has been actively trying to improve the reliability of these devices. In spite of this, detailed understanding o...

Introduction Silicon has long been the semiconductor of choice for high-voltage power electronics applications. However, wide-bandgap semiconductors such as SiC and GaN have begun to attract attention because they are projected to have much better performance than silicon. In comparison with silicon, wide-bandgap semiconductors offer a lower intrinsic carrier concentration, a higher electric br...

Due to the wide band gap energy and high breakdown electric field of GaN, heterostructure transistors made from it are promising candidates for high power and high frequency applications. However, one issue that prevents the wide deployment of GaN HEMTs is their reliability. Research has been actively trying to improve the reliability of these devices. In spite of this, detailed understanding o...

Due to the wide band gap energy and high breakdown electric field of GaN, heterostructure transistors made from it are promising candidates for high power and high frequency applications. However, one issue that prevents the wide deployment of GaN HEMTs is their reliability. Research has been actively trying to improve the reliability of these devices. In spite of this, detailed understanding o...

Keywords: Inter-poly dielectric (IPD) ONO Leakage current Bias polarity a b s t r a c t Retention characteristic represents a capability to maintain the storage data and it is related with the reliability of memory device. The retention characteristic is degraded by the leakage of charges from a floating gate to a control gate, and thus the leakage current at low and moderate electric field of ...

Plasma spots are known to form at field emission sites in regions of high dc or rf electric field. Several mechanisms for the formation of plasma spots in an rf field have been proposed, and one such mechanism which fits experimental data is presented in this paper. However, a plasma spot by itself does not produce breakdown. A single plasma spot, with a lifetime on the order of 30 ns, extracts...

The electroplates of the electric organ of Torpedo are embryonically derived from striated muscle fibres which lose their ability to contract and develop greatly expanded end-plate surfaces (cf. Rosenberg, 1928). From consideration of the thermodynamics of the Torpedo organ discharge, Bernstein (1912) concluded that the electric energy of the discharge was derived from a difference between the ...

Microfabricated surface ion traps are a principle component of many ion-based quantum information science platforms. The operational parameters these devices pushed to the edge their physical capabilities as experiments strive for increasing performance. When applied radio-frequency (RF) voltage is increased too much, can experience damaging electric discharge events known RF breakdown. We intr...