TY - JOUR
T1 - A model for NBTI in nitrided oxide MOSFETs which does not involve hydrogen or diffusion
AU - Lenahan, Patrick M.
AU - Campbell, Jason P.
AU - Krishnan, Anand T.
AU - Krishnan, Srikanth
N1 - Funding Information:
Manuscript received April 16, 2010; revised June 21, 2010; accepted July 17, 2010. Date of publication August 3, 2010; date of current version June 15, 2011. This work was supported by the Semiconductor Research Corporation under Texas Instruments Custom Funding. P. M. Lenahan is with The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802 USA (e-mail: pmlesm@engr.psu.edu). J. P. Campbell is with the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD 20899 USA. A. T. Krishnan and S. Krishnan are with Texas Instruments Incorporated, Dallas, TX 75343 USA. Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TDMR.2010.2063031
PY - 2011/6
Y1 - 2011/6
N2 - The negative bias temperature instability (NBTI) is, arguably, the single most important reliability problem in present day metal-oxide-silicon field-effect transistor (MOSFET) technology. This paper presents a model for the NBTI which is radically different from the quite widely utilized reaction diffusion models which dominate the current day NBTI literature. The proposed model is relevant to technologically important nitrided oxide pMOSFETs. The model is clearly not, at least in its entirety, relevant to pure silicon dioxide gate pMOSFETs. The reaction diffusion models involve hydrogen/silicon bond breaking events at the silicon/silicon dioxide interface initiated by the presence of an interface hole, followed by the diffusion of a hydrogenic species from the interface as well as the potential rebonding of hydrogen and interface trap defect centers. This model does not invoke hydrogen in any form whatsoever but does simply account for the observed NBTI power law response with a reasonable, at least very plausible, assumption about defect distribution and provides a reasonably accurate value for this exponent. (Without making any assumption about defect distribution, the model still provides a time response semiquantitatively consistent with the observations, reasonable agreement considering the simplifying assumptions in the calculations.) The model also provides a reasonable explanation for the recovery which includes a simple explanation for the extremely rapid rate of recovery at short times. In addition, the model provides a very simple explanation why the introduction of nitrogen greatly enhances the NBTI. The model, as presented in this paper, should be viewed as a first-order approximation; it contains several simplifying assumptions. Finally, the model is consistent with recent electron paramagnetic resonance studies of NBTI defect chemistry in nitrided oxide pMOSFETs.
AB - The negative bias temperature instability (NBTI) is, arguably, the single most important reliability problem in present day metal-oxide-silicon field-effect transistor (MOSFET) technology. This paper presents a model for the NBTI which is radically different from the quite widely utilized reaction diffusion models which dominate the current day NBTI literature. The proposed model is relevant to technologically important nitrided oxide pMOSFETs. The model is clearly not, at least in its entirety, relevant to pure silicon dioxide gate pMOSFETs. The reaction diffusion models involve hydrogen/silicon bond breaking events at the silicon/silicon dioxide interface initiated by the presence of an interface hole, followed by the diffusion of a hydrogenic species from the interface as well as the potential rebonding of hydrogen and interface trap defect centers. This model does not invoke hydrogen in any form whatsoever but does simply account for the observed NBTI power law response with a reasonable, at least very plausible, assumption about defect distribution and provides a reasonably accurate value for this exponent. (Without making any assumption about defect distribution, the model still provides a time response semiquantitatively consistent with the observations, reasonable agreement considering the simplifying assumptions in the calculations.) The model also provides a reasonable explanation for the recovery which includes a simple explanation for the extremely rapid rate of recovery at short times. In addition, the model provides a very simple explanation why the introduction of nitrogen greatly enhances the NBTI. The model, as presented in this paper, should be viewed as a first-order approximation; it contains several simplifying assumptions. Finally, the model is consistent with recent electron paramagnetic resonance studies of NBTI defect chemistry in nitrided oxide pMOSFETs.
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U2 - 10.1109/TDMR.2010.2063031
DO - 10.1109/TDMR.2010.2063031
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:79959533200
SN - 1530-4388
VL - 11
SP - 219
EP - 226
JO - IEEE Transactions on Device and Materials Reliability
JF - IEEE Transactions on Device and Materials Reliability
IS - 2
M1 - 5535069
ER -