Role of electron traps in the radiation hardness of thermally nitrided silicon dioxide

A number of samples of thermally nitrided SiO2 with varying concentrations of electron traps were studied in an attempt to correlate the radiation-induced oxide charge with the number of electron traps. Also studied were the detrapping characteristics of irradiated devices. Etch-back experiments were performed to locate the centroid of the trapped charge. The results show that electron trapping does play a role in the improved radiation hardness of nitrided SiO2, but is not the sole cause of it.IEE