Fast and slow dynamic NBTI components in p-MOSFET with SiON dielectric and their impact on device life-time and circuit application

For the first time, we perform a systematic investigation of the fast and slow components of dynamic NBTI (DNBTI) in p-MOSFET with SiON gate dielectric. The new findings are: (1) The recent debate in the slow DNBTI component measured by conventional DC method of G. Chen et al (2003), M. Alam (2003), S. Mahapatra et al (2004) S. Charkravarthi et al (2004), and V.Huard et al. is clarified. We show evidence that the slow DNBTI is due to interface traps N/sub it/ generation and passivation. The conventional methods used over the past years seriously underestimate N/sub it/ due to passivation of N/sub it/ during measurement. (2) The fast DNBTI component measured by the fast method by C. Shen et al (2004) is due to trapping and de-trapping of hole traps N/sub ot/ in SiON. The accumulative degradation increases with increasing stress frequency. Model simulations are in excellent agreement with all experiments. (3) We re-evaluate the impact of DNBTI on device lifetime and circuit applications in the light of this new finding.