Abstract
The post-breakdown electrical characteristics of a conductor-like breakdown (BD) path formed in ultrathin gate dielectric are found to exhibit Schottky behavior. The presence of a nano-scale Schottky barrier is vital in controlling the leakage current conduction during progressive BD (PBD). As a result, it is expected that the growth of a BD path could be slowed down since there is a reduction in the effective stressing voltage across the BD path. This means that the leakage current evolution during PBD at nominal operating voltages will take a much longer time to reach a specific leakage current limit