Effect of Nitrogen Concentration on Low-Frequency Noise and Negative Bias Temperature Instability of p-Channel Metal–Oxide–Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistors with Nitrided Gate Oxide

Abstract

In this paper, the dependence of negative bias temperature instability (NBTI) and low-frequency noise characteristics on the various nitrided gate oxides is reported. The threshold voltage shift (ΔVT) under NBTI stress for thermally nitrided oxide (TNO) was greater than that of plasma nitrided oxide (PNO), whereas the slopes of ΔVT versus stress time for PNO were similar to those for TNO. The flicker noise (1/f noise) characteristic of PNO was better than that of TNO by about 1 order of magnitude, although the 1/f noise of PNO showed almost the same dependence on the frequency as that of TNO. The carrier number fluctuation model due to the trapping and detrapping of electrons in oxide traps was found to be a dominant mechanism of flicker noise. The probability of the generation of drain current random telegraph signal (ID–RTS) noise shows similar values (70–78%) for all nitrided oxides, which shows that the generation of RTS noise is not greatly affected by the nitridation method or nitrogen concentration.