Abstract
In recent literature, a controversy has arisen over the question whether deuterium improves the stability of the MOS gate dielectric. In particular, the influence of deuterium incorporation on the bulk oxide quality is not clear. In this letter, deuterium or hydrogen is introduced during either the gate oxidation, postoxidation anneal, and/or the postmetal anneal (PMA). The oxide bulk degradation was evaluated using charge-to-breakdown and stress-induced leakage current; and the oxide interface degradation using hot-carrier degradation and low-frequency noise. The obtained results show that the oxide bulk does not benefit from the presence of deuterium, regardless of the stage of deuterium introduction, or the gate oxide thickness. The oxide interface is more stable only when deuterium is introduced in the PMA.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 2111-2115 |
Number of pages | 5 |
Journal | IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices |
Volume | 52 |
Issue number | 9 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Jun 2005 |
Keywords
- CMOS integrated circuits
- Annealing
- Electric breakdown
- Hot carriers
- Leakage currents
- MOS capacitors
- MOSFETs
- Oxidation
- Weibull distributions
- Deuterium
- Noise