Negative-bias-temperature-instability in metal-insulator-semiconductor structures

We have demonstrated that negative-bias-temperature-instability (NBTI) significantly decreases the minority carrier generation lifetime as well as modifying the dominant source supplying minority carriers to the inversion layer at the semiconductor-insulator interface. This was manifested by an NBTI-induced shift in the deep-level-transient-spectroscopy (DLTS) peak signal associated with the inversion layer formation at the semiconductor-insulator interface at temperatures above room temperature to a lower temperature. In addition, we have observed that the DLTS inversion layer-related peak signal gradually shifted back, close to its pre-NBTI temperature position after a substantial time at zero bias-voltage and room temperature conditions had elapsed since the NBTI experiment. We have tentatively ascribed this recovery to a post-NBTI reaction at the semiconductor-insulator interface between unpassivated positively charged silicon dangling bonds and negatively charged hydrogen ions.