Improved hot-carrier reliability of SOI transistors by deuterium passivation of defects at oxide/silicon interfaces

Author

Cheng, Kangguo ; Lee, Jinju ; Karl, Holger ; Lyding, Joseph W. ; Kim, Young-Kwang ; Kim, Young-Wug ; Suh, Kwang-Pyuk

Author_Institution

Beckman Inst. for Adv. Sci. & Technol., Illinois Univ., Urbana, IL, USA

Volume

49

Issue

3

fYear

2002

fDate

3/1/2002 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

529

Lastpage

531

Abstract

The effect of deuterium on hot-carrier reliability of fully processed 0.18 μm silicon-on-insulator (SOI) devices is investigated. The improvement of device lifetime by a factor of 30 is achieved by passivating the interface defects with deuterium instead of hydrogen. The hydrogen/deuterium isotope effect (γ), defined as the ratio of generation interface traps of a hydrogenated device to that of a deuterated one, shows strong dependence on the gate stress voltages (V _gs). Increasing V_gs results in the decrease of γ. These results suggest that the breaking of Si-H(D) bonds by channel electrons through the vibrational heating mechanism may play an important role in the degradation of deep submicron SOI devices

Keywords

MOSFET; electron traps; hot carriers; passivation; semiconductor device reliability; silicon-on-insulator; 0.18 micron; SOI transistors; Si-SiO₂; channel electrons; deep submicron devices; deuterium passivation; device lifetime; gate stress voltages; generation interface traps; hot-carrier reliability; hydrogen/deuterium isotope effect; interface defects; vibrational heating mechanism; Deuterium; Electron traps; Heating; Hot carrier effects; Hot carriers; Hydrogen; Isotopes; Silicon on insulator technology; Stress; Voltage;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Devices, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9383

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/16.987128

Filename

987128