Experimental evidence of hydrogen-related SILC generation in thin gate oxide

Abstract

Reports the study on the deuterium effect on the degradation of gate oxide under both channel hot electron (CHE) stress condition and Fowler-Nordheim (F-N) stress condition using n-MOSFETs having the deuterated gate oxides. The suppression of both interface-state generation and stress-induced leakage current (SILC) by the deuterium pyrogenic oxidation has been found not only under F-N stress condition but also under hot-hole injection condition. This result indicates that hydrogen-release process in SiO/sub 2/ correlates to the origin of SILC generation.