Reduction of hot electron degradation in metal oxide semiconductor transistors by deuterium processing

We report experimental results that replacing hydrogen with deuterium during the final wafer sintering process greatly reduces hot electron degradation effects in metal oxide semiconductor transistors due to a new giant isotope effect. Transistor lifetime improvements by factors of 10-50 are observed. A plausible physical theory suggests that the benefits of deuterium use may be general and also applicable to other areas of semiconductor device processing and fabrication. (C) 1996 American Institute of Physics.