Investigation of Plasma Charging damage impact on device and gate dielectric reliability in 180nm SOI CMOS RF switch technology

The impact of charging damage from plasma processes on device and gate dielectric reliability is investigated for MOSFETs fabricated in an SOI CMOS RF Switch technology. Although results from voltage breakdown measurements do not reveal any indication of plasma damage, detrimental antenna effects are observed on the negative bias temperature instability (NBTI) and hot carrier device performance. With regard to NBTI in P-channel SOI MOSFETs in particular, relaxation experiments are carried out under various bias conditions. Recovery effects which are well known for intrinsic NBTI are also observed for the antenna devices, but are found to be reduced relative to that of control devices.