On the number of fast interface states of standard CMOS technologies

In recent publications about MOS devices, a fast interface state (IS) density has been found for standard thermal oxides, which is much higher than previously expected. This high number of fast interface states was shown to have a strong impact on the effective mobility in state of-the-art MOSFET´s with high channel doping concentrations. This calls into question the validity of the standard procedure for mobility data extraction and of all device simulations in which fast interface states are neglected. In contrast to those results our investigations of standard MOS devices fabricated by three different manufactures do not yield such a high interface state density. Our results show that fast interface states can still be neglected for modeling state-of-the-art CMOS technologies and previously extracted mobility data are still valid although fast interface states have been ignored.