Enhanced Hole Trapping in MOS Devices Damaged by Plasma-Induced Charging

With an aggressive device scaling and a wide use of plasma-assisted processes, the device damage caused by process-induced charging is receiving growing attention, from both basic understanding and technological points of view. In this paper we show that plasma-induced charging generates. in addition to interface defects and neutral electron traps in the gate oxide, defects which act as hole traps. Enhanced hole trapping in the gate oxide of plasma damaged PMOS devices was studied by Fowler-Nordheim stress and substrate hot hole injection applied to antenna test structures sensitive to process-induced charging.