Total-ionizing-dose effects and reliability of carbon nanotube FET devices

Electrical stress and 10-keV X-ray irradiation and annealing responses are evaluated for carbon nanotube field effect transistors for nonvolatile memory applications. Less than 3% change in the drain current is observed during constant-voltage stress. Irradiation and annealing under positive gate bias induces more degradation in both drain current and memory window than under negative bias. Cycling of the on/off state leads to significant degradation in the memory window.     

Early stage ageing effects and shallow positron traps in Al–Mg–Si alloys

Room temperature ageing, so-called natural ageing, of Al–Mg–Si alloys has a subtle but striking influence on the mechanical properties achievable by subsequent ageing at more elevated temperatures. Though strongly debated, different clustering processes are generally accepted to give rise to this effect. Using temperature-dependent positron lifetime measurements of naturally aged Al–Mg–Si alloys, it is shown that in the early stages of ageing, small clusters of alloying atoms without embedded vacancies take part in the decomposition process. These clusters serve as shallow positron traps with a binding energy of about 55(10) meV, grow in the course of natural ageing and transform to deep positron traps with binding energies well above thermal energies. Thus, results of positron annihilation spectroscopy techniques need to be interpreted carefully with respect to the microstructure of age-hardenable Al alloys. Moreover, it is shown that a simple approach to bind positron states using a three-dimensional potential well and (bulk) positron affinities cannot explain the present findings.     

GIDL应力下超薄栅氧LDD NMOS器件退化

The degradation of device under GIDL （gate-induced drain leakage current） stress has been studied using LDD NMOSFETs with 1.4 nm gate oxides. Experimental result shows that the degradation of device parameters depends more strongly on Vd than on Vg. The characteristics of the GIDL current are used to analyze the damage generated during the stress. It is clearly found that the change of GIDL current before and after stress can be divided into two stages. The trapping of holes in the oxide is dominant in the first stage, but that of electrons in the oxide is dominant in the second stage. It is due to the common effects of edge direct tunneling and band-to-band tunneling. SILC（stress induced leakage current）in the NMOSFET decreases with increasing stress time under GIDL stress. The degradation characteristic of SILC also shows saturating time dependence. SILC is strongly dependent on the measured gate voltage. The higher the measured gate voltage, the less serious the degradation of the gate current. A likely mechanism is presented to explain the origin of SILC during GIDL stress.     

F-N应力下SOI n-MOSFETs性能退化与栅控二极管产生-复合（G-R）电流的对应关系

本文验证了F-N应力导致的SOI n- MOSFET器件性能退化与栅控二极管的产生-复合（G-R）电流的对应关系。F-N应力导致的界面态增加会导致SOI-MOSFET结构的栅控二极管的产生-复合（G-R）电流增大,以及MOSFET饱和漏端电流,亚阈斜率等器件特性退化。通过一系列的SOI-MOSFET栅控二极管和直流特性测试,实验观察到饱和漏端电流的线性退化和阈值电压的线性增加,亚阈摆幅的类线性上升以及相应的跨导退化。理论和实验证明栅控二极管是一种很有效的监控SOI-MOSFET退化的方法。     

Transverse heating due to nonadiabatic propagation of cold atoms in an atomic guide

We study propagation of cold atoms along a curved atomic guide following an arbitrary trajectory in space. Transverse energy of the atomic beam increases as the beam propagates along the guide. Our model explains results of recent experiments on optical and magnetic guiding of cold atoms.     

Characterization of the triple-gate flash memory endurance degradation mechanism

Write/erase degradation after endurance cycling due to electron trapping events in triple-gate flash mem-ory have been detected and analyzed using a tYV erasure method. Different from the commonly degradation phe-nomenon, write-induced electron trapping in the floating gate oxide, electron trapping in tunneling oxide is observed in triple-gate flash memory. Further, the degradation due to single-electron locally trapping/de-trapping in horn-shaped SuperFlash(R) does not occur in the triple-gate flash cell. This is because of planar poly-to-poly erasing in the triple-gate flash cell instead of tip erasing in the horn-shaped SuperFlash(R) cell. Moreover, by TCAD simulation, the trap location is identified and the magnitude of its density is quantified roughly.     

Thermally stimulated current in SiO2

Thermally stimulated current (TSC) techniques provide information about oxide-trap charge densities and energy distributions in MOS (metal-oxide-semiconductor) capacitors exposed to ionizing radiation or high-field stress that is difficult or impossible to obtain via standard capacitance–voltage or current–voltage techniques. The precision and reproducibility of measurements through repeated irradiation/TSC cycles on a single capacitor is demonstrated with a radiation-hardened oxide, and small sample-to-sample variations are observed. A small increase in E′_δ center density may occur in some non-radiation-hardened oxides during repeated irradiation/TSC measurement cycles. The importance of choosing an appropriate bias to obtain accurate measurements of trapped charge densities and energy distributions is emphasized. A 10 nm deposited oxide with no subsequent annealing above 400°C shows a different trapped-hole energy distribution than thermally grown oxides, but a similar distribution to thermal oxides is found for deposited oxides annealed at higher temperatures. Charge neutralization during switched-bias irradiation is found to occur both because of hole-electron annihilation and increased electron trapping in the near-interfacial SiO₂. Limitations in applying TSC to oxides thinner than 5 nm are discussed.     

Use of carbon adsorption traps combined with high resolution gas chromatography – mass spectrometry for the analysis of polar and non-polar C4-C14 hydrocarbons involved in photochemical smog formation

A method has been developed for the collection and analysis of polar and non-polar C₄-C₁₄ hydrocarbons involved in the formation of photochemical smog. Enrichment of hydrocarbons from both polluted and unpolluted areas has been achieved with three-stage traps packed with carbon adsorbents of different surface area; the use of a home-made desorption unit employing cryofocusing then enables the determination of the compounds by HRGC-FID. Two-stage traps filled with graphitic carbon have been used prior to GC-MS identification and quantitation of compounds producing overlapping peaks. The methodology has been tested in the urban area of Rome and in a pine forest, and more than 140 different compounds identified and quantitated. Many of the constituents were found to be oxygenated, either formed by photochemical reactions or of anthropogenic origin.     

SFE of PAHs from soils with a high carbon content and analyte collection via combined liquid/solid trapping

Polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are recovered from a soil with a high carbon content (ca. 50%) with supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) as well as with conventional Soxhlet extraction. The influence of temperature and modifier volume on SFE efficiency and the effect of a combined liquid/solid trap for analyte collection are investigated in this study. Such traps, which make analyte collection and clean-up possible in one step, are compared with conventional analyte collection in pure organic solvents. A comparison between reproducibility and efficiency of SFE and Soxhlet extraction is presented.     

High-mobility SiC MOSFET with low density of interface traps using high pressure microwave plasma oxidation

The microwave plasma oxidation under the relatively high pressure(6 kPa)region is introduced into the fabrication process of SiO2/4 H-SiC stack.By controlling the oxidation pressure,species,and temperature,the record low density of interface traps(~4×10¹⁰cm^-2·eV^-1@Ec-0.2 eV)is demonstrated on SiO2/SiC stack formed by microwave plasma oxidation.And high quality SiO2 with very flat interface(0.27-nm root-mean-square roughness)is obtained.High performance Si C metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistors(MOSFETs)with peak field effect mobility of 44 cm^-2·eV^-1is realized without additional treatment.These results show the potential of a high-pressure plasma oxidation step for improving the channel mobility in SiC MOSFETs.