Observations of NBTI-induced atomic-scale defects

A combination of MOSFET gate-controlled diode measurements and a very sensitive electron spin resonance technique called spin-dependent recombination was utilized to observe and identify defect centers generated by a negative bias temperature stress in fully processed SiO2-based pMOSFETs. In SiO2 devices, the defects include two Si/SiO2 interface silicon dangling bond centers (P-b0 and P-b1) and may also include an oxide silicon dangling bond center (E'). The observations indicate that both P-b0 and P-b1. defects play major roles in these SiO2-based devices and suggest that E' centers could play an important role.