Channel hot-carrier stressing of reoxidized nitrided silicon dioxide

The mechanisms of channel hot-carrier-induced degradation in short n-channel MOSFETs with reoxidized nitrided oxide as the gate dielectric are discussed. Charge pumping measurements, supported by observations on the gate voltage dependence of degradation and the power law dependence of Δg_m on stress time, demonstrate that virtually no interface trap generation occurs in reoxidized nitrided oxides and that electron trapping is the dominant degradation mechanism. Although electron trapping can be enhanced in these dielectrics, this mechanism is not as important for device degradation as interface trap generation, and the net effect is substantially improved resistance to hot-carrier stress. A three-orders-of-magnitude improvement in device lifetime (versus conventional oxide) is demonstrated