Magnitude of the threshold energy for hot electron damage in metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistors by hydrogen desorption

Based on the energetics for hydrogen desorption from the interface between silicon and silicon-dioxide, we argue that the hard threshold for this effect may be considerably lower than the previously assumed value (similar to 3.6 eV). We support these findings further by recent experimental results related to the giant isotope effect in hydrogen related transistor degradation and the fact that degradation occurs also with relatively low supply voltages. We also show that the high threshold energy model is difficult to defend at these low voltages, even though electron-electron interactions provide a mechanism to create hot electrons with energies of similar to 3.6 eV. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0003-6951(99)03846-2].