Defect loss and its physical processes

Defects in MOSFETs generally have adverse effects on device performance: they increase the threshold voltage, reduce the driving current, and in turn, lower the operation speed. Early works focus on the charging and discharging of defects and their impact on device lifetime. There is little information on the stability of defects themselves, i.e., whether a defect can be lost. The objective of this work is to demonstrate that defects indeed can be lost and to investigate which type of defects are lost and the physical processes for the defect loss. It is found that the losses originate from the generated interface states and anti-neutralization positive charges. The loss is a thermally activated process and it is speculated that the depletion of hydrogen species from the device could lead to the loss.