Investigation of hot carrier effects in n-MISFETs with HfSiON gate dielectric

This paper reports the hot carrier reliability of n-MISFET with HfSiON gate dielectrics and n/sup +/ polysilicon gate electrode. It is found that generation of electron traps is the main cause of device degradation. The worst hot carrier stress condition is found to be V/sub d/=V/sub g/ condition rather than the well-known condition of V/sub g/ giving maximum substrate current (I/sub sub//sup max/), which is the worst condition for n-MOSFET with conventional SiO/sub 2/. It is revealed that this difference originates from the difference in degradation mechanism.