Characterization of hole traps generated by electron injection in thin SiO2 films

MOS device stability can be significantly affected by charge trapping in the gate oxide, which changes device parameters and causes serious reliability problems in transistors and memory cells. Hole traps, generated by high-field electron injection, are studied in this work in devices with thermal oxides less than 10 nm thick. PMOS transistors, after various doses of positive and negative Fowler-Nordheim injection and post-stress annealing, are subjected to substrate hot hole injection to investigate hole trapping kinetics. Parameters of hole traps, generated under the stress, are studied as a function of gate oxide thickness and electron injection dose.