Title :
Plasma-damaged oxide reliability study correlating both hot-carrier injection and time-dependent dielectric breakdown
Author :
Li, Xiaoyu ; Hsu, Jen-Tai ; Aum, Paul ; Chan, David ; Rembetski, J. ; Viswanathan, C.R.
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Electr. Eng., California Univ., Los Angeles, CA, USA
Abstract :
The oxide damage resulting from exposure to a plasma environment in four different dry-etch tools was investigated using both hot-carrier injection (HCI) and time-dependent dielectric breakdown (TDDB). A strong correlation was observed between hot-carrier injection results and time-dependent dielectric breakdown results. It was found that a damaged oxide has both a lower critical energy for HCI to create an interface trap, and a lower activation energy for Fowler-Nordheim injection to create a hole in the oxide. These results also suggest that in dry etching, possibly more damage occurs in the metal step than in the contact etch step.<>
Keywords :
electric breakdown of solids; hot carriers; insulated gate field effect transistors; interface electron states; reliability; sputter etching; Fowler-Nordheim injection; LDD transistors; MOST; activation energy; dry etching; hot-carrier injection; interface trap; nMOS transistors; plasma damaged oxide reliability; time-dependent dielectric breakdown; Dielectric breakdown; Dielectric measurements; Dry etching; Hot carrier injection; Human computer interaction; Plasma applications; Plasma devices; Plasma measurements; Transconductance; Voltage;
Journal_Title :
Electron Device Letters, IEEE
