(*) Summary. Aggressive scaling of the thickness of the gate insulator in CMOS transistors has caused the quality and reliability of ultra thin dielectrics to assume greater importance.
The aim of this talk is describing the basic aspects of reliability of gate oxides in CMOS transistors in connection with degradation due to radiation interaction. Particularly two main aspects are going to be discussed: the role of progressive breakdown of gate oxides in long term predictions and the basics of radiation effects on MOS stacks. The later focused on motivations and actual problems.

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(**) Biodata: Dr. Felix Roberto Mario Palumbo received the MSc. (2000) and the PhD (2005) both in physics from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. From 2005 he is a staff research Scientist of the National Council of Science and Technology (CONICET) in Argentina. From 1997 to 2005, he was with the Device Physics and Microelectronics Laboratory (DPML) at Engineering Faculty of University of Buenos Aires working on radiation effects on MOS structures and reliability. From 2001 to 2002, he joined the R&D group of Tower Semiconductor at Migdal Haemek in Israel, carrying on research on reliability of gate oxides and flash memories. Since 2003 he was a frequent visiting scientist at the IMM-CNR Catania, Italy. His present research interests are in the field of reliability of ultra-thin oxides, metal gates and radiation effects on semiconductors devices. He is the author, or co-author, of one review article, and of about fifteen scientific and technical papers published in international refereed journals.
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