Hot-carrier-induced degradation in reoxidized-nitrided-oxide n-MOSFETs under mixed AC-DC stressing

Author

Ma, Z.J. ; Lai, P.T. ; Cheng, Y.C.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Electron. Eng., Hong Kong Univ., Hong Kong

Volume

13

Issue

6

fYear

1992

fDate

6/1/1992 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

314

Lastpage

316

Abstract

Reduced degradation rate can be observed for reoxidized-nitrided-oxide (RNO) n-MOSFETs under dynamic stressing versus the corresponding static stressing. A new degradation mechanism is proposed in which trapped holes in gate oxide are neutralized by the hot-electron injection, with no significant generation of interface states because of the hardening on the Si-SiO/sub 2/ interface by nitridation/reoxidation steps. The RNO device degradation during AC stressing arises mainly from the charge trapping in the gate oxide rather than the generation of interface states. Moreover, the AC-stressed RNO devices are significantly inferior to the fresh RNO devices in terms of DC stressing, possibly due to lots of neutral electron traps in the gate oxide resulting from the AC stressing.<>

Keywords

electron traps; hole traps; hot carriers; insulated gate field effect transistors; nitridation; oxidation; RNO device degradation; Si-SiO/sub 2/; charge trapping; degradation mechanism; dynamic stressing; electron traps; gate oxide; hot carrier induced degradation; hot-electron injection; mixed AC-DC stressing; n-channel devices; nitridation; reoxidation; static stressing; trapped holes; Degradation; Electron traps; Hot carriers; Interface states; MOSFET circuits; Pulse measurements; Secondary generated hot electron injection; Stability; Switches; Voltage;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Device Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0741-3106

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/55.145069

Filename

145069