Process Defects and Effects on Mosfet Gate Reliability

Gate failures are a significant factor in FET field failures. The role of defects (especially particulates) in the gate (thin dielectric) reliability failures on PET´s has been previously studied. However, little or no data has been reported on defect size distributions, siting information (where they are located) and density distributions over varying device sizes and topologies. In addition, little is known about correlation of all these parameters to accelerated life test failures. This study was initiated to help provide some of this information.