Low-energy electron beam irradiation effect on Al/SiO2/Si structure voltage-farad characteristics

Abstract

The effect of electron irradiation with energy of 2.5 keV on the MOS structure Al/SiO2/Si capacitance-voltage (C-V) characteristics have been studied. At chosen beam energy the electron penetration depth is lower than the dielectric thickness that allows to reveal the contribution of excess carrier transport to the trap formation on the SiO2/Si interface. It was established that the electron beam irradiation leads to a significant change in the C-V characteristics slope, i.e. to to the trap formation at the interface. A study of effect of bias applied to the investigated structure before and during the electron beam irradiation was carried out. It was established that while the bias applied before irradiation practically did not affect the C-V characteristics of the investigated MOS structure, the positive voltage applied to metallization during irradiation produced a pronounced effect on the C-V curve changes. At the same time the C-V characteristics after irradiation with zero and negative voltage were very similar. The investigation of stability of changes produced by the electron beam irradiation showed that the C-V curves are slowly restored even at room temperature. An applied negative bias was found to slow down the charge relaxation process.