Hours-Long Transient Leakage Current in MOS Structures Induced by High Total-Ionizing-Dose

This article studies the apparition and the fast annealing of a leakage current in p- and n-MOS transistors and structures. This leakage current is observed for total ionizing doses (TIDs) of 50 Mrad(SiO ₂ ) and above and anneals rapidly within the hours following the end of irradiation. An extensive set of specially designed and dedicated structures are used to study this phenomenon. In particular, the article presents the effects of the dose rate, the transistor type (n or p), the drain–source voltage, or the bias during annealing. Results show that the observed transient leakage current is an intensification followed by fast annealing of the generation current inside the drain and source depletion regions. It appears that this generation leakage current most likely originates from the creation of positive charges in the thick oxides of the devices, that is, the shallow trench isolation (STI) and the pre-metal dielectric (PMD), and it generally anneals at ambient temperature in less than 12 h after irradiation.