Publications

Abstract not provided.

Total ionizing dose results are provided, showing the effects of different threshold adjust implant processes and irradiation bias conditions of 14-nm FinFETs. Minimal radiation-induced threshold voltage shift across a variety of transistor types is observed. Off-state leakage current of nMOSFET transistors exhibits a strong gate bias dependence, indicating electrostatic gate control of the sub-fin region and the corresponding parasitic conduction path are the largest concern for radiation hardness in FinFET technology. The high-Vth transistors exhibit the best irradiation performance across all bias conditions, showing a reasonably small change in off-state leakage current and Vth, while the low-Vth transistors exhibit a larger change in off-state leakage current. The "worst-case" bias condition during irradiation for both pull-down and pass-gate nMOSFETs in static random access memory is determined to be the on-state (Vgs = Vdd). We find the nMOSFET pull-down and pass-gate transistors of the SRAM bit-cell show less radiation-induced degradation due to transistor geometry and channel doping differences than the low-Vth transistor. Near-threshold operation is presented as a methodology for reducing radiation-induced increases in off-state device leakage current. In a 14-nm FinFET technology, the modeling indicates devices with high channel stop doping show the most robust response to TID allowing stable operation of ring oscillators and the SRAM bit-cell with minimal shift in critical operating characteristics.

Here, total ionizing dose results are provided, showing the effects of different threshold adjust implant processes and irradiation bias conditions of 14-nm FinFETs. Minimal radiation-induced threshold voltage shift across a variety of transistor types is observed. Off-state leakage current of nMOSFET transistors exhibits a strong gate bias dependence, indicating electrostatic gate control of the sub-fin region and the corresponding parasitic conduction path are the largest concern for radiation hardness in FinFET technology. The high-Vth transistors exhibit the best irradiation performance across all bias conditions, showing a reasonably small change in off-state leakage current and Vth, while the low-Vth transistors exhibit a larger change in off-state leakage current. The “worst-case” bias condition during irradiation for both pull-down and pass-gate nMOSFETs in static random access memory is determined to be the on-state (Vgs = Vdd). We find the nMOSFET pull-down and pass-gate transistors of the SRAM bit-cell show less radiation-induced degradation due to transistor geometry and channel doping differences than the low-Vth transistor. Near-threshold operation is presented as a methodology for reducing radiation-induced increases in off-state device leakage current. In a 14-nm FinFET technology, the modeling indicates devices with high channel stop doping show the most robust response to TID allowing stable operation of ring oscillators and the SRAM bit-cell with minimal shift in critical operating characteristics.

Abstract not provided.

Abstract not provided.

We examine the total-dose radiation response of capacitors and transistors with stacked Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} on oxynitride gate dielectrics with Al and poly-Si gates after irradiation with 10 keV X-rays. The midgap voltage shift increases monotonically with dose and depends strongly on both Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} and SiO{sub x}N{sub y} thickness. The thinnest dielectrics, of most interest to industry, are extremely hard to ionizing irradiation, exhibiting only {approx}50 mV of shift at a total dose of 10 Mrad(SiO{sub 2}) for the worst case bias condition. Oxygen anneals are found to improve the total dose radiation response by {approx}50% and induce a small amount of capacitance-voltage hysteresis. Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}/SiO{sub x}N{sub y} dielectrics which receive a {approx}1000 C dopant activation anneal trap {approx}12% more of the initial charge than films annealed at 550 C. Charge pumping measurements show that the interface trap density decreases with dose up to 500 krad(SiO{sub 2}). This surprising result is discussed with respect to hydrogen effects in alternative dielectric materials, and may be the result of radiation-induced hydrogen passivation of some of the near-interfacial defects in these gate dielectrics.

Abstract not provided.

High-energy ion-irradiated 3.3-nm oxynitride film and 2.2-nm SiO2-film MOS capacitors show premature break-down during subsequent electrical stress. This degradation in breakdown increases with increasing ion linear energy transfer (LET), increasing ion fluence, and decreasing oxide thickness. The reliability degradation due to high-energy ion-induced latent defects is explained by a simple percolation model of conduction through SiO2 layers with irradiation and/or electrical stress-induced defects. Monitoring the gate-leakage current reveals the presence of latent defects in the dielectric films. These results may be significant to future single-event effects and single-event gate rupture tests for MOS devices and ICs with ultrathin gate oxides.

Ultra-thin oxynitride films were grown on Si by direct rapid thermal processing (RTP) oxynitridation in NO/O{sub 2} ambients with NO concentrations from 5% to 50%. During oxynitridation, nitrogen accumulated at the Si/dielectric interface and the average concentration of in N through the resulting films ranged from 0.3 to 3.0 atomic percent. The average concentration of N in the films increased with increasing NO in the ambient gas, but decreased with longer RTP times. The maximum N concentration remained relatively constant for all RTP times and a given NO/O{sub 2} ambient. Re-oxidation following oxynitridation altered L the N profile and improved the electrical characteristics, with an optimal NO/O{sub 2} mixture in the range of 10% to 25% NO. Re-oxidation by RTP improves the electrical characteristics with respect to the films that were not re-oxidized and produces only slight changes in the N distribution or maximum concentration. The electrical results also indicate that oxynitride films are superior to comparably grown oxide films.

Defects in silicon-on-insulator (SOI) buried oxides are normally considered deleterious to device operation. Similarly, exposing devices to hydrogen at elevated temperatures often can lead to radiation-induced charge buildup. However, in this work, we take advantage of as-processed defects in SOI buried oxides and moderate temperature hydrogen anneals to generate mobile protons in the buried oxide to form the basis of a ''protonic'' nonvolatile memory. Capacitors and fully-processed transistors were fabricated. SOI buried oxides are exposed to hydrogen at moderate temperatures using a variety of anneal conditions to optimize the density of mobile protons. A fast ramp cool down anneal was found to yield the maximum number of mobile protons. Unfortunately, we were unable to obtain uniform mobile proton concentrations across a wafer. Capacitors were irradiated to investigate the potential use of protonic memories for space and weapon applications. Irradiating under a negative top-gate bias or with no applied bias was observed to cause little degradation in the number of mobile protons. However, irradiating to a total dose of 100 krad(SiO{sub 2}) under a positive top-gate bias caused approximately a 100% reduction in the number of mobile protons. Cycling capacitors up to 10{sup 4} cycles had little effect on the switching characteristics. No change in the retention characteristics were observed for times up to 3 x 10{sup 4} s for capacitors stored unbiased at 200 C. These results show the proof-of-concept for a protonic nonvolatile memory. Two memory architectures are proposed for a protonic non-destructive, nonvolatile memory.

We have measured the temperature dependence of the volatility of a wide variety of Static RAMS. The temperature dependence is directly related to the memory cell design and device processing or fabrication parameters. We have seen the volatility change by {approximately}10 orders of magnitude when the absolute temperature is changed by a factor of {approximately}2. We present physical reasons for such a large temperature dependence and derive an analytical model which accurately predicts the volatility. Neutron irradiation is seen to increase the low-temperature volatility.

We have measured 1/f noise in MOS transistors as a function of gate and drain bias, total ionizing dose, and postirradiation biased annealing time. The transistors tested varied in size, radiation hardness, and process technology. The radiation-induced 1/f noise correlates strikingly with the oxide trap charge through irradiation and anneal, but not with interface-trap charge, for frequencies up to 10 kHz. This implies that oxide trapped charge is the pre-dominant factor which leads to the increased 1/f noise in irradiated MOS devices. © 1990 IEEE

The 1/f noise of MOS transistors has been measured as a function of total ionizing dose and postirradiation biased annealing time. Comparison to oxide and interface trapped-charge buildup and annealing is discussed. 13 refs., 3 figs.