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

Remote hydrogen plasma exposure is used to study the transport of atomic hydrogen, H0, through reoxidized-nitrided oxides and SiO2 and to quantify H0-induced degradation of their interfaces with silicon. It is directly demonstrated that (1) H0 is extremely reactive and produces large numbers of interface states; (2) the transport of H0 to the silicon/oxide interface is strongly suppressed in reoxidized-nitrided oxides; and (3) this suppression of the H0 transport is mainly responsible for the much slower interface degradation of reoxidized-nitrided oxides during high-field, hot-electron stress as compared to thermal oxide.