Short-Term Charge Annealing in Electron-Irradiated Silicon Dioxide

The existence of a rapid annealing phase in the decay of space charge induced in silicon dioxide by pulsed irradiation has been demonstrated. This effect has been observed in MOS structures prepared from both wet and dry thermal oxides and also in several commercial N-channel MOSFET's. A simple model involving thermal release of the trapped positive charge from a distribution of oxide trapping levels conveniently approximates the major features of short-term annealing.