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MOS capacitors with a 4.4 nm thick gate oxide have been exposed to /spl gamma/ radiation from a Co/sup 60/ source. As a result, we have measured a stable leakage current at fields lower than those required for Fowler-Nordheim tunneling. This Radiation Induced Leakage Current (RILC) is similar to the usual Stress Induced Leakage Currents (SILC) observed after electrical stresses of MOS devices. We have verified that these two currents share the same dependence on the oxide field, and the RILC contribution can be normalized to an equivalent injected charge for Constant Current Stresses. We have also considered the dependence of the RILC from the cumulative radiation dose, and from the applied bias during irradiation, suggesting a correlation between RILC and the distribution of trapped holes and neutral levels in the oxide layer.

We have studied the effects of ionizing and non-ionizing radiation on the breakdown properties of different types of MOS capacitors, with thick (200 nm) and thin (down to 8 nm) oxides. In general, no large variations of the average breakdown field, time-to-breakdown at constant voltage, or charge-to-breakdown values have been observed after high dose irradiation (20 Mrad(Si) 9 MeV electrons on thin and thick oxides, 17(Si) Mrad Co/sup 60/ gamma and 10/sup 14/ neutrons/cm/sup 2/ only on thick oxides). However, some modifications of the cumulative failure distributions have been observed in a few of the oxides tested.