Comment on "hot-hole-induced negative oxide charges in n-MOSFETs" [with reply]

For the original article see ibid., vol. 42, p. 1473 (1995). The commenters state that a clear proof of the generation of electron traps under hot-hole injections and a clear distinction from the effect of stress-induced interface states have been given by them in a paper (see ibid., vol. 40, p. 773, 1993) previous to the work reported by Weber et al. Also, the consequences of the creation of these defects in AC lifetime predictions have been extensively discussed by Mistry and Doyle (see ibid., vol. 40, p.96, 1993 and IEEE Electron Device Lett., vol. 12, p. 492, 1991). Detrapping experiments extensively used by Weber et al. are another independent evidence of such a creation of electron traps by hot-hole injections in n-MOSFET´s, and the suggestion of new data acquisition to take into account the effects of such electron traps in the determination of lifetimes is a key point to further development, especially as far as operating conditions of analog CMOS circuits are considered. In reply the authors remark that the paper by Vuillaume et al. was inadvertently left off the reference list as they were unaware of its existence and as the paper is certainly relevant to the issue being discussed, it should have been included in the reference list. Also the authors give several arguments why they believe that their technique using time-dependent changes in the multiplication factor M is superior to either charge pumping or floating gate measurements for differentiating between the two types of negative charge created by hot-hole injection: interface traps and oxide traps.