We utilize a very sensitive electron spin resonance technique called spin-dependent tunneling to identify defect centers involved in the negative bias temperature instability in plasma-nitrided p-channel metal-oxide-silicon field-effect transistors. The defect's ²⁹Si hyperfine... (Read more)

The authors combine metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) gated diode measurements and very sensitive electrically detected electron spin resonance measurements to detect and identify negative bias temperature instability (NBTI) generated defect centers in fully processed HfO₂ pMOS field effect... (Read more)

We have characterized the leakage current paths of ultra-thin gate dielectrics using spin-dependent tunneling (SDT) spectroscopy. A spin-dependent current was detected in metal-oxide-semiconductor diodes with chemical-vapor-deposition SiN gate films with thickness less than 3 nm. We examined the nature of the trap sites in terms of g-value, bias-dependent signal intensity, and magnetic-field orientation dependence. The main feature of the observed spectrum is attributed to a paramagnetic Si site in the SiN films. By using a quantitative model of electron spin-polarization, we were able to estimate the ratio of trap-assisted current to the total leakage current. (Read more)

We show that Cat-CVD silicon nitride films contain more than 1019 cm−3 nitrogen-bonded Si dangling bonds, similarly to the case for conventional CVD films. However, the charge-trapping behavior of the Cat-CVD films is found to be quite different, in spite of the same origin for the dominant... (Read more)