Charge trapping effects in HfSiON dielectrics on the ring oscillator circuit and the single stage inverter operation

For the first time, the effects of fast transient charge trapping in high-k devices on ring oscillator circuit operation are reported in comparison with SiO₂ devices. At high V_dd regime, the propagation delay for high-k devices was shorter than that of SiO₂. However, at low V_dd, high-k devices show longer propagation delay. These results suggest that the performance of high-k device is improved significantly in the high-speed circuits, where the fast transient charge trapping can be negligible. Single pulse measurement and single stage inverter analysis support that the fast transient charge trapping effects can be negligible at higher frequency and the fast transition can exclude charge-trapping effects on the circuit operation.