Study of the Physics of Insulating Films as Related to the Reliability of Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (MOS) Devices

This report contains a discussion of the effect of the gate metal on the build up of interface states at the Si-Si02 interface. A method for reducing electron trapping in Si02 is described that significantly increases the cyclability of electrically-alterable read-only storage devices. A new low voltage electroluminescent device has been built that uses Si rich Si02 charge injectors. Photon-assisted-tunneling and internal photoemission measurements have been made on metal-oxide-semiconductor samples. A quantum mechanical image force theory has been used to explain the results. Studies of the temperature dependence of the oxidation rate of silicon indicate that there are two oxidant species responsible.