In the version of the article initially published, in the “DB modelling” timeline in Fig. 3, “Power law model” was mistakenly listed as 1999 and has now been corrected to 2000. Additionally, refs. 28 and 86 have now been swapped so that ref. 28 is now Wu, E. et al. Voltage-dependent voltage-acceleration of oxide breakdown for ultrathin oxides. In International Electron Devices Meeting 2000. Technical Digest. IEDM (Cat. No.00CH37138) 541–544 (IEEE, 2000) and ref. 86 is Wu, E., Harmon, D. & Han, L.-K. Interrelationship of voltage and temperature dependence of oxide breakdown for ultrathin oxides. IEEE Electron Device Lett. 21, 362–364 (2000). Citations to ref. 27 have now been corrected to ref. 28 in the third and sixth paragraphs of the “Phenomenological electrical breakdown models” section, and the second paragraph of the “Outlook” section. These corrections have been made to the HTML and PDF versions of the article.