Effects of stress annealing in nitrogen on the effective contact-potential difference, charges, and traps at the Si/SiO[sub 2] interface of metal–oxide–semiconductor devices.

In this article, we report the results of a study of the effects of high-temperature stress annealing in nitrogen on the electrical properties of metal/oxide/semiconductor devices. In this study, we have experimentally characterized the dependence of the reduced effective contact-potential difference, the effective oxide charge (N[sub eff]), and the midgap interface trap density (D[sub it]) on the annealing conditions in nitrogen. We have correlated such properties with the dependence of the index of refraction and oxide stress on the annealing conditions and oxide thickness in a companion article. We consider the contributions of the thermal-relaxation and nitrogen-incorporation processes in determining changes in the electrical properties with annealing time. This model description is consistent with other annealing studies carried out in argon where only the thermal-relaxation process is present. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]