Nature And Creation Mechanisms Of The Si-Sio2 Interface Defects Induced By Homogeneous Carrier Injections Through The Gate Oxide

We present a review on the Si-SiO2 interface defect creation mechanisms and on the nature of these defects when metal-oxide-semiconductor devices are submitted to homogeneous carrier injection through the gate oxide under the application of high electric field stress across the oxide. We begin by a review of the state-of-the art, we emphasize on the main degradation mechanisms and we point out the gap in our today knowledge of this subject. In this context, we present our recent contributions to this field. Our main results lead to : i) present new insights on the electronic properties of the silicon dangling bonds at the Si-SiO2 interface, ii) establish the link between these stress-induced defects and the silicon dangling bonds and iii) to point out the role of the neutral hydrogen-related species diffusion to create defects at the Si-SiO2 interface. These studies are relevant to the field of reliability problems of the silicon VLSI MOSFET devices.