Interface trap generation and electron trapping in fluorinated SiO2

Electron trapping and oxide trap generation have been studied in polycrystalline-Si gate metal-oxide-semiconductor (metal-SiO2-Si) capacitors in which F was introduced into the SiO2 layer by implantation into the Si gate followed by a drive-in process. Three key findings are presented: (i) consistent with previous reports, the fluorinated SiO2/Si interface becomes more resistant to ionizing radiation or hot-electron damage; (ii) the incorporation of fluorine introduces electron traps with a small capture cross section of approximately 1×10−18 cm2; and (iii) the presence of F suppresses the generation of new oxide traps under high-field hot-electron injection. Possible explanations are discussed.