Some observations on charge buildup and release in silicon dioxide irradiated with low energy electrons

The positive charge buildup produced in silicon dioxide by low energy electrons (0 to 30 keV) has been investigated as a function of beam energy and oxide thickness. The induced charge, as evidenced by displacement of capacitance versus voltage plots, was found to be a function of the beam energy dissipated within the oxide in the vicinity of the oxide-silicon interface. The charge induced at a particular fluence level in an oxide of given thickness increases with energy up to some level Emaxbeyond which the charge buildup rate falls off as the energy is increased further. Continued falloff in the buildup rate was observed in several samples irradiated at energies of 200 keV and 1 MeV. Emaxhas been found to correspond to the beam energy which, according to predicted range-energy data, produces maximum energy dissipation per unit path length in the oxide near the silicon interface. Constant temperature annealing of irradiated MOS samples has indicated that the annealed charge is linearly dependent on the logarithm of elapsed time over a finite time interval. This is particularly evident at room temperature where a linear dependence on In (t) has been observed out to 10⁵seconds. Such a time dependence of released charge can result either from thermal activation of trapped carriers from a uniform trap distribution or from thermal emission of recombination electrons over a Schottky barrier from the silicon into the oxide; however, both of these models predict the released charge to be a linear function of absolute temperature. A much stronger temperature dependence has been observed during these experiments.