Hot-carrier effects in MOSFET's with nitrided-oxide gate-dielectrics prepared by rapid thermal processing

The authors present a comprehensive study of the hot-carrier effects with respect to both ON- and OFF-states in scaled n- and p-channel MOSFETs having nanometer-range thin (re-annealed) nitrided oxides. The authors report hot-carrier induced degradations in n-channel FETs. In particular, the dependencies on stressing gate voltages and fabrication conditions are extensively described. Secondly, p-channel results are reported. Then in addition to the above ON-state investigations, gate-induced drain leakage (GIDL) effects are reported. The authors show a quantitative relation of the hot-carrier induced n-FET degradations to physical properties of nitrogen and hydrogen contents measured by Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) and secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS). To explain the observed behavior of hot-carrier-induced n-FET degradations, a two-factor model has been proposed and developed into a semi-empirical formula.<
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