Defects and relaxation during the negative bias temperature instability in PMOSFET

In this paper, several experiments are presented in order to give a complete understanding of relaxation phenomena occurring during Negative Bias Temperature Instabilities (NBTI) stress in PMOSFETs. The impact of electrical field and temperature has been investigated. Firstly, we have proved the impact of the electrical field on de-trapping of oxide traps only, and not on the re-passivation of interface states. Secondly the temperature effects on interface states have been evaluated. Finally, we observe a full relaxation by combining field and high temperature effects. This study allows concluding on relaxation physics due to a NBTI interruption.