Plasma damage on a high-k/SiO ₂ dielectric at a gate edge during a dry etch process is investigated. The damage was observed to generate slow oxide traps, causing a random telegraph noise (RTN) in a gate edge direct tunneling current. Through the analysis of the RTN, the distribution of the oxide traps in the high-k/SiO ₂ dielectric was obtained, and the plasma-damage-induced oxide traps were found to be distributed over a wide area of the high-k/SiO ₂ sidewall at the gate edge region.