Observations of NBTI-Induced Atomic-Scale Defects

A combination of MOSFET gate-controlled diode measurements and a very sensitive electron spin resonance technique called spin-dependent recombination was utilized to observe and identify defect centers generated by a negative bias temperature stress in fully processed SiO2-based pMOSFETs. In SiO2devices, the defects include two Si/SiO2interface silicon dangling bond centers (Pb0and Pb1) and may also include an oxide silicon dangling bond center (E'). The observations indicate that both Pb0and Pb1defects play major roles in these SiO2-based devices and suggest that E' centers could play an important role