Enhancement in soft breakdown occurrence of ultra-thin gate oxides caused by photon effect in rapid thermal post-oxidation annealing

The effect of photon illumination in rapid thermal processing on the characteristics of MOS structures with ultra-thin oxides examined by substrate injection

“…Furthermore, an enhancement in soft breakdown occurrence has been 0038-1101/$ -see front matter Ó 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.sse.2005.06.024 also clearly observed for the samples treated by FPOA [2].…”

“…Hence, it is worthy of noting that whether in RTO processing or in POA one, the occurrence frequencies of BD-H are more for the samples treated by FH processing than for those done by BH one. It is because during the illumination treatment in RTP the distribution of oxide traps is influenced and then localized [2] so that it causes easily the occurrence of BD-H under substrate injection. The BD-H occurrence in MOS capacitors is, therefore, enhanced by the direct illumination treatment.…”

“…Some gate oxides were grown by front-side or back-side heating rapid thermal oxidation, denoted by FRTO and BRTO, respectively, at 800-900 °C without POA. Moreover, the other gate oxides were grown by RTO at 800-900 °C for 35 s, followed by front-side or back-side heating post-oxidation annealing in N 2 ambience, denoted by FPOA and BPOA, respectively, at 960 °C 55 s [2]. The schematic diagram of front-side heating and back-side heating apparatus is shown in Fig.…”

“…Moreover, the microscopic defects are much larger for RTP with back heating compared to that with front heating [1]. On the other hand, the effect of front-and back-side heating post-oxidation annealing, denoted by FPOA and BPOA, in RTP on ultra-thin gate oxides examined by gate injection has been reported [2]. Furthermore, an enhancement in soft breakdown occurrence has been 0038-1101/$ -see front matter Ó 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.…”

Precise and Simple Methods for Detection of Initial Defects in 1.2 nm Gate Dielectrics Based on Nonlinear Conductions

“…According to the continuous scale-down of MOSFETs, the generation frequencies of process-induced defects on the gate dielectrics [1][2][3][4][5][6] have been increasing seriously. Such 'initial' defects draw the low yields and the poor reliabilities of MOSFETs.…”