Plasma and injection modification of the gate dielectric in MOS structures

Abstract

It has been shown that both RF plasma and plasma-jet treatments led to the creation of electron traps in the bulk of SiO 2 film. As a result, it is possible to increase the breakdown voltage of a metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) structure when the breakdown probability is significantly decreased. It has been found that injection treatment of MOS structures with thermal SiO 2 film allows control of the statistical distribution of charge defects, and thus the mean charge injected into the dielectric to breakdown is increased. The modification of MOS devices having a gate dielectric of SiO 2/phosphosilicate glass by Fowler–Nordheim (FN) electron injection taking place in high-fields was also studied. Constant-current FN electron injection from the silicon substrate and the metal electrode was used to modify the charge state of the MOS structure.