Lucent Technologies Inc.

Agere Systems Inc.

Jonathan Z-n Zhou

Pradip Kumar Roy

Sundar Srinivasan Chetlur

Sidhartha Sen

Anthony S Oates

A semiconductor device having trap sites passivated with deuterium has enhanced immunity to hot carrier effects. The trap sites which are passivated with deuterium are encapsulated beneath a barrier film and are therefore resistant to having the deuterium diffuse away from the trap sites during subsequent high temperature processing operations.

Deuterium passivated semiconductor device having enhanced immunity to hot carrier effects

A process sequence for forming a semiconductor device utilizes a passivation annealing process using deuterium which enhances immunity to hot carrier effects and extends device lifetime. The process sequence is carried out prior to the introduction of metal conductive films to the device. The process sequence includes a three-step passivation, de-passivation, re-passivation sequence and utilizes a barrier film to encapsulate deuterium molecules in the vicinity of a gate oxide, during the de-passivation operation.

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Jonathan Z-n Zhou