Reversibility of charge trapping and SILC creation in thin oxides after stress/anneal cycling

The reversibility of charge buildup and SILC generation in thin oxides subjected to successive stress/anneal cycles is investigated. It is demonstrated that in thin oxides both electron trapping and SILC are nearly fully reversible degradation processes having a generation kinetics almost unchanged after several stressing/annealing cycles. The annealing kinetics of the SILC is likely associated to the out diffusion of charged defects (possibly trapped holes or H+) whose characteristics (diffusivity, activation energy) are independent of the oxide thickness. Moreover correlation between electron trapping and SILC generation has been studied.