Bulk and interface trap generation under negative bias temperature instability stress of p-channel metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors with nitrogen and silicon incorporated HfO2 gate dielectrics

Abstract

Negative bias temperature instabilities (NBTIs) of p-channel metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect-transistor with HfO2, HfOxNy, and HfSiON were investigated. Higher bulk trap generation (ΔNot) is mainly attributed to threshold voltage shift rather than interface trap generation (ΔNit). ΔNit, ΔNot, activation energy (Ea), and lifetime were exacerbated with incorporated nitrogen while improved with adding Si into gate dielectrics. Compared to HfO2, HfOxNy showed worse NBTI due to nitrogen pile-up at Si interface. However, adding Si into HfOxNy placed nitrogen peak profile away from Si/oxide interface and NBTI was reduced. This improvement is ascribed to reduced ΔNot and ΔNit, resulting from less nitrogen at Si interface.