On Interface and Oxide Degradation in VLSI MOSFETs - Part I: Deuterium Effect in CHE Stress Regime

This paper analyzes in detail the generation of interface states ( it) and stress-induced leakage current (SILC) during channel hot electron (CHE) stress experiments in the context of a possible hydrogen/deuterium (H/D) isotope effect. Our results show that it generation is related to the hydrogen release (HR) at the Si-SiO2 interface at relatively high where a large isotope effect is found. Instead, for gate voltages ( ) favorable for hot hole injection (HHI) the it creation becomes a unique function of hole fluence and the isotope effect disappears. In the studied stress conditions, we found no experimental evidence supporting a causal relation between SILC generation and HR because no isotope effect is observed even when the corresponding it measurements reveal a very different D/H release rate. Similar to it generation, we found that SILC becomes a unique function of hole fluence at low stress . Relevant implications and extensions of these results to the Fowler-Nordheim (FN) tunneling stress conditions are discussed in the companion paper.