The impact of a deuterium(D2)sinter under two different annealing conditions, 450 °C/60 min and 450 °C/90 min, was studied and compared to the traditional forming gas (FG) sinter. Channel hot carrier (CHC) measurements indicated that while theD2sinter for 60 min improves the lifetime of the devices by10×over the FG sinter, an additional increase in theD2anneal time actually has a negative impact on lifetime. DC current–voltage measurements also showed that samples sintered inD2ambient for 60 min were the least prone to degradation under stress. Gated diode results showed no appreciable amount of difference in the initial interface state density among the different samples. Secondary ion mass spectroscopy indicated that neither poly nor salicide appears to be a complete barrier toD2diffusion. ©1998 American Institute of Physics.