EFFECTS OF AR-SURFACE GETTERING ON THE PROPERTIES OF FLICKER NOISE INN-CHANNEL NITRIDED MOSFETS( BACK)

Flicker noise in back-surface gettered, nitrided n-channel metal-oxide -semiconductor field-effect transistors is characterized over a wide r ange of temperature and biases. The gettering was performed using a lo w-energy (550 eV) argon ion beam, and the gettering time ranged from 1 0 to 40 min. The noise power spectra for devices with different getter ing times are compared to the ungettered devices which serve as the co ntrol. It is found that flicker noise is reduced by back-surface gette ring for short gettering times. However, a rebound in the noise magnit ude is observed for long gettering times. Investigation of the tempera ture dependences of the noise power spectra indicates that the low-fre quency noise arises from thermal activation of carriers to traps at th e Si-SiO2 interface. Back-surface gettering results in the modificatio n of the energy distribution of the interface traps, probably due to s tress relaxation at the Si-SiO2 interface. Copyright (C) 1996 Publishe d by Elsevier Science Ltd