Improvement of hot-carrier and radiation hardnesses in metal-oxide-nitride-oxide semiconductor devices by irradiation-then-anneal treatments

The hardnesses of hot-carrier and radiation of metal-oxide nitride-oxide semiconductor (MONOS) devices can be improved by the irradiation-then-anneal (ITA) treatments. Each treatment includes an irradiation of Co-60 with a total dose of 1M rads(SiO/sub 2/) and an anneal in N/sub 2/ at 400/spl deg/C for 10 min successively. This improvement can be explained by the release of SiO/sub 2//Si interfacial strain.<
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