Spin Dependent Recombination Study of the Atomic-Scale Effects of Fluorine on the Negative Bias Temperature Instability

Published

April 26, 2009

Author(s)

J.T. Ryan, Patrick M. Lenahan, A.T. Krishnan, S. Krishnan, Jason Campbell

Abstract

Recent work has shown that the negative bias temperature instability (NBTI) can be significantly suppressed through the incorporation of fluorine in the gate oxide of pure SiO2 pMOSFETs. In this study, we use spin dependent recombination and standard gated diode current measurements to investigate the atomic-scale processes involved in fluorine's suppression of NBTI. We find that fluorine can effectively passivate Si/SiO2 Pb0 center defect precursors, but is much less effective at passivating Si/SiO2 Pb1 center defect precursors. Since these two defects have significantly different densities of states, our results may be useful in modeling NBTI response in fluorinated oxide devices. Our results also provide a fundamental explanation for the observation that fluorination has a strong effect on NBTI in 'pure' SiO2 MOS devices, but is ineffective at reducing NBTI in nitrided oxide devices.

Proceedings Title

2009 IEEE International Reliability Physics Symposium

Conference Dates

April 28-30, 2009

Conference Location

Montreal, CA

Pub Type

Conferences

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Keywords

NBTI, Fluorine, Spin Dependent Recombination, Electron Spin Resonance

Citation

Ryan, J. , Lenahan, P. , Krishnan, A. , Krishnan, S. and Campbell, J. (2009), Spin Dependent Recombination Study of the Atomic-Scale Effects of Fluorine on the Negative Bias Temperature Instability, 2009 IEEE International Reliability Physics Symposium, Montreal, CA, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=902305 (Accessed October 8, 2025)