A combination of capacitance-voltage and lifetime decay measurements was used to show that corona biasing of Si oxidized samples results in the generation of additional interface defects and an increase in surface recombination. The onset of interface degradation occurred at relatively low electric fields, estimated to be less than ~+/−1.2MV/cm. The majority of the defects generated by corona biasing could be removed by a short annealing at 400C. The results were consistent with the hypothesis that atomic H was chiefly responsible for the observed degradation. Corona biasing, even at low electric fields, could not be relied on as a non-invasive characterization tool.

Defect Generation at the Si–SiO2 Interface Following Corona Charging. H.Jin, K.J.Weber, N.C.Dang, W.E.Jellett: Applied Physics Letters, 2007, 90[26], 262109