Some studies on the instability in MOS devices due to water vapour contamination

Abstract
The capacitance-voltage technique has been employed to study the instability phenomenon in silicon dioxide films, intentionally contaminated with water vapour. The temperature, voltage and time dependence on initial drift and recovery waveform are reported. Variation of contamination level and study of ion migration kinetics have been used to propose a new qualitative model to explain the result. Non-bridging oxygen situated at the metal-oxide interface acts an attractive site for positive ions. When the system is exposed to water, a complex is formed, which dissociates the positively charged ions, causing the observed instability. The above phenomenon is observed only when a catalytic impurity is present on the oxide surface.

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