Charge trapping in ion-sputtered silicon dioxide films on silicon

Charge trapping in thermal silicon dioxide has been previously studied in great detail. Recently there has been an interest in depositing silicon dioxide films at lower temperatures to be compatible with device technologies that are not compatible with the higher temperature. This paper discusses the electron and hole trapping behavior in room temperature, ion-sputtered silicon dioxide thin films. Generally, these films are observed to trap both carriers much more efficiently then thermal silicon dioxide films. The trapping parameters such as the trap cross-section, location, density and the trapping efficiency are reported.