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-SiO2 interface. A method for reducing electron trapping in SiO2 that significantly increases the cyclability of electrically-alterable read-only storage devices is described. A new low voltage electroluminescent device was built that uses Si rich SiO2 charge injectors. Photon assisted tunneling and internal photoemission were measured on metal-oxide semiconductor samples. A quantum mechanical image force theory is used to explain the results. Studies of the temperature dependence of the oxidation rate of silicon indicate that there are two oxidant species responsible.