Investigation of Device Performance and Negative Bias Temperature Instability of Plasma Nitrided Oxide in Nanoscale p-Channel Metal–Oxide–Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistor's

Abstract

In this paper, we investigated the device performance and negative bias temperature instability (NBTI) degradation for thermally nitrided oxide (TNO) and plasma nitrided oxide (PNO) in nanoscale p-channel metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (PMOSFET). PNOs show the improvement of dielectric performance compared to TNO with no change of the device performance. PNOs also show the improvement of NBTI immunity than TNO at low temperature stress, whereas NBTI immunity of PNO with high N concentration can be worse than TNO at high temperature stress. Recovery effect of NBTI degradation of PNO is lower than that of TNO and it is increased as the N concentration is increased in PNO because the dissociated Si dangling bonds and generated positive oxide charges are repassivated and neutralized, respectively. Moreover, complete recovery of ΔVth is dominated by neutralization of positive oxide charges. Therefore, N contents at polycrystalline Si/SiO2 interface as well as N contents at Si/SiO2 interface can affect significantly on NBTI degradation and recovery effect.