Session 3B-3

Physical Understanding of Strain Effects on
GateOxide Reliability of MOSFETs

 

Abstract

The strain effects on TDDB and NBTI are systematically investigated using biaxially strained Si MOSFETs and their physical origins are examined. It is found that TDDB directly correlates with gate current, resulting in significant improvement in nMOS but small degradation in pMOS. On the other hand, NBTI is degraded by the biaxial tensile strain, which is attributable to the enhancement of tunneling probability of holes into Si-H bonding states near the interface.