The structural dependence of breakdown characteristics and electrical degradation in ultrathin oxide/nitride (O/N) dielectrics, prepared by remote plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition, is investigated under constant voltage stress. In the early stage of oxide wearout, soft breakdown is a local phenomenon dominated by the tunneling current. After a given period of stress, a strong channel-length dependence of dielectric breakdown and the corresponding stress-induced leakage current from the evolution of increased tunneling current have been found. Stacked O/N dielectrics with interface nitridation demonstrate improved device performance on subthreshold swing and threshold voltage shifts after stress, indicating the suppression of stress-induced traps at the oxide/Si and oxide/drain interfaces compared to thermal oxides. Experimental evidence shows more severe breakdown and device degradation in the threshold voltage, drain current and transconductance for shorter channel PMOSFETs with O/N dielectrics. These degradations result from the enhancement of hole trapping in the gate-drain overlap region as evidenced by a positive off-state leakage current, which leads to hard breakdown, and the complete failure of device functionality. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.