Thin-oxide damage from gate charging during plasma processing

The plasma-induced charge damage to small gate gate MOS capacitors is investigated by using 'antenna' structures. After an O/sub 2/ plasma step the interface state density increases with increasing antenna area and varies by two orders of magnitude. A hole trapping-induced breakdown mechanism during plasma charging is supported by experimental evidence which includes annealing and polarity effects for charge to breakdown and tunneling currents. In addition, oxide susceptibility is shown to depend on oxide growth conditions and is predictable by negative bias-temperature aging.<
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