The origin of stress‐induced leakage current in ultrathin SiO2has been quantitatively investigated on the basis of the experimental results on temperature dependence of stress‐induced leakage current. We found that stress‐induced leakage current is dependent on stressing temperature, and that it is independent of measurement temperature. It has been quantitatively demonstrated for the first time that the activation energy of the appearance of stress‐induced leakage current agrees well with that of electron trap generation so far reported. It is discussed quantitatively that stress‐induced leakage current and electron trap generation have a common origin. ©1995 American Institute of Physics.