Atomic hydrogen-induced interface degradation of reoxidized-nitrided silicon dioxide on silicon

Abstract
Remote hydrogen plasma exposure is used to study the transport of atomic hydrogen, H 0, through reoxidized‐nitrided oxides and SiO2 and to quantify H 0‐induced degradation of their interfaces with silicon. It is directly demonstrated that (1) H 0 is extremely reactive and produces large numbers of interface states; (2) the transport of H 0 to the silicon/oxide interface is strongly suppressed in reoxidized‐nitrided oxides; and (3) this suppression of the H 0transport is mainly responsible for the much slower interface degradation of reoxidized‐nitrided oxides during high‐field, hot‐electron stress as compared to thermal oxide.