Growth and Annealing of Trapped Holes and Interface States Using Time-Dependent Biases

Defect growth and annealing mechanisms in MOS devices have been studied. Biases were changed during irradiations. Significant radiation-induced annealing of trapped holes was observed. Apparent room temperature annealing of interface states was also observed. A consistent explanation of this apparent annealing is presented, i.e., an effect of LNU´s on the results of the subthreshold analysis technique. A possible physical mechanism for the creation of LNU´s due to inhomogeneous energy deposition is explored.