A model for evaluating cumulative oxide damage from multiple plasma processes

This paper reports a model for evaluating the cumulative oxide damage caused by multiple plasma processes. By considering dependence of the charging current on the antenna size, the damage to a MOS device with various antenna configurations is evaluated, and is compared with the measured data. It is shown that the plasma charging current is a sub-linear function of the antenna size. Because of this characteristic, cumulative oxide damage becomes smaller than a simple sum when the antenna is shared among multiple layers of antenna conductors. A modified antenna rule is proposed, and a realistic antenna design guideline is obtained