Generation of hole traps in silicon dioxides

Oxide breakdown is a potential showstopper for future CMOS technology. Defect generation is responsible for the breakdown. Previous work (Degraeve et al., 2000; Stathis and DiMaria, 1999; Zhang et al, 1992) was focused on electron trap generation, while little information is available on hole trap generation. This paper unambiguously shows that a significant amount of hole traps can be created.