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Abstract-Degradation of p-MOSFET parameters during negative-bias temperature instability (NBTI) stress is studied for different nitridation conditions of the silicon oxynitride (SiON) gate dielectric, using a recently developed ultrafast on-the-fly I DLIN technique having 1-µs resolution. It is shown that the degradation magnitude, as well as its time, temperature, and field dependence, is governed by nitrogen (N) density at the Si/SiON interface. The relative contribution of interface trap generation and hole trapping to overall degradation as varying interfacial N density is qualitatively discussed. Plasma oxynitride films having low interfacial N density show interface trap dominated degradation, whereas relative hole trapping contribution increases for thermal oxynitride films having high N density at the Si/SiON interface.Index Terms-Device degradation, hole trapping, interface traps, negative-bias temperature instability (NBTI), on-the-fly (OTF) I DLIN , plasma oxynitride, p-MOSFETs, thermal oxynitride.

Abstract-In this paper, a simple phenomenological technique is used to isolate the hole-trapping and interface trap generation components during negative bias temperature instability (NBTI) stress in plasma nitrided oxide (PNO) p-MOSFETs. This isolation methodology reconciles the apparent differences between experimentally measured NBTI power-law time exponents obtained by ultrafast on-the-fly I DLIN method, which are the ones obtained using slightly delayed but very long-time measurements, and the corresponding exponents predicted by the reaction-diffusion model. A systematic validation of the isolation technique is provided through degradation data taken over a broad range of operating conditions and a wide variety of PNO processes, to establish the robustness and uniqueness of the separation procedure.Index Terms-Activation energy, field acceleration, hole trapping, interface traps, negative bias temperature instability (NBTI), plasma oxynitride, p-MOSFET, reaction-diffusion (R-D) model, time exponent.

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Abstract-An ultrafast on-the-fly technique is developed to study linear drain current (I DLIN ) degradation in plasma and thermal oxynitride p-MOSFETs during negative-bias temperature instability (NBTI) stress. The technique enhances the measurement resolution ("time-zero" delay) down to 1 μs and helps to identify several key differences in NBTI behavior between plasma and thermal films. The impact of the time-zero delay on time, temperature, and bias dependence of NBTI is studied, and its influence on extrapolated safe-operating overdrive condition is analyzed. It is shown that plasma-nitrided films, in spite of having higher N density, are less susceptible to NBTI than their thermal counterparts.Index Terms-Field acceleration, negative-bias temperature instability (NBTI), plasma oxynitride, p-MOSFET, safe-operating voltage, temperature activation, thermal oxynitride, time exponents.

Mobility degradation due to generation of interface traps (Δμ eff (N IT )) is a well-known phenomenon that has been theoretically interpreted by several mobility models. Based on these analysis, there is a general perception that Δμ eff (N IT ) is relatively insignificant (compared to Δμ eff due to ionized impurity) and as such can be safely ignored for performance and reliability analysis. Here, we investigate the importance of considering Δμ eff (N IT ) for reliability analysis by analyzing a wide variety of plasma oxynitride PMOS devices using both parametric and physical mobility models. We find that contrary to popular belief this correction is fundamentally important for robust and uncorrupted estimates of the key reliability parameters like threshold-voltage shift, lifetime projection, voltage acceleration factor, etc. Therefore, in this paper, we develop a generalized algorithm for estimating Δμ eff (N IT ) for plasma oxynitride PMOS devices and systematically explore its implications for NBTI-specific reliability analysis.

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