Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 February 2011
In this paper, a significant degradation under hot hole injection is observed in P+ -poly PMOSFETs with oxynitride gate dielectrics. In our study, both oxynitrides formed by gate oxide grown on Nitrogen Implanted Si Substrates (NISS) and NO-annealed SiO2 oxynitride gate dielectrics are used and compared to control SiO2 gate dielectrics of identical thicknesses. A physical model responsible for such enhanced degradation in PMOSFETs with oxynitride gate dielectric is proposed. It is shown that the hole injection barrier lowering as a result of the nitrogen-rich layer at the SiO2/Si interface in oxynitride is responsible for such enhanced degradation.