On interface and oxide degradation in VLSI MOSFETs. I. Deuterium effect in CHE stress regime

This paper analyzes in detail the generation of interface states (N/sub 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 N/sub it/ generation is related to the hydrogen release (HR) at the Si-SiO/sub 2/ interface at relatively high V/sub G/ where a large isotope effect is found. Instead, for gate voltages (V/sub G/) favorable for hot hole injection (HHI) the N/sub 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 N/sub it/ measurements reveal a very different D/H release rate. Similar to N/sub it/ generation, we found that SILC becomes a unique function of hole fluence at low stress V/sub G/. Relevant implications and extensions of these results to the Fowler-Nordheim (FN) tunneling stress conditions are discussed in Pt. II.