Degradation of Si MOSFET Gate Oxides by Ion Implantation

We have characterised the effects of ion implantation in advanced MOSFETs, and have shown that severe gate oxide degradations can be induced by ion implantations used routinely in front-end processing of MOS transistors. The mechanisms of oxide degradation are revealed to be connected to the nuclear energy transfer to the O atoms in the oxide during implantation. Si and O ion mixing can result in significant increase of the effective oxide thickness which also result in intrinsic device performance degradation.