DEPASSIVATION OF LATENT PLASMA DAMAGE IN pMOS DEVICES

While plasma-induced charging damage has been widely studied in recent years, much of the work has concentrated upon the impact on n-channel MOSFET reliability [1-6]. This work focuses the impact of plasma damage on pMOS devices from the viewpoint of oxide trapped charge and interface states with the experimental featuring two parameters Qp and ANp, linked respectively to the oxide charge and the interface state density. This experimental method is valid for pMOS devices in two different technologies and permits to fully compare devices with different oxide thickness. Furthermore, we demonstrate that, for a given antenna, the plasma damage roughly has the same net impact on transistor characteristics, regardless of oxide thickness. © 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.