Dynamic hot-carrier stressing of reoxidized nitrided oxide

Dynamic channel hot-carrier stress measurements were performed on reoxidized nitrided oxide (RNO) nMOSFETs in order to determine the importance of the high-gate-voltage electron trapping that occurs during static stress. RNO transistors stressed under circuit operation conditions were found to exhibit extrapolated lifetime 10⁷ times greater than the lifetime determined from static stress measurements at the worst-case condition V_g~V _d. Comparing RNO with conventional oxide under high-voltage dynamic stress conditions predicts a lifetime gain of 10 ¹⁰ for the RNO. This finding makes RNO an extremely attractive gate dielectric candidate for scaled CMOS devices     

Characteristics of PBTI and Hot Carrier Stress for LTPS-TFT With High- $kappa$ Gate Dielectric

In this letter, the characteristics of positive bias temperature instability (PBTI) and hot carrier stress (HCS) for the low-temperature poly-Si thin-film transistors (LTPS-TFTs) with gate dielectric are well investigated for the first time. Under room temperature stress condition, the. PBTI shows a more serious degradation than does HCS, indicating that the gate bias stress would dominate the hot carrier degradation behavior for LTPS-TFT. In addition, an abnormal behavior of the degradation with different drain bias stress under high-temperature stress condition is also observed and identified in this letter. The degradation of device's performance under high-temperature stress condition can be attributed to the damages of both the gate dielectric and the poly-Si grain boundaries.     

高栅压电子注入损伤对产生电流的影响

用反向GD法研究了高栅压应力下的LDD nMOSFET中的损伤情况.发现这种应力下产生电流峰值随着应力时间的增大变小,峰值变小和氧化层中负陷阱电荷增大的趋势一致.峰值变小是由于应力中氧化层陷阱电子起主导作用,从而减小了漏电压的有效作用,使得产生率最大值变小.应用这种新模型定量得出了影响漏电压的等效电荷密度.     

高栅压电子注入损伤对产生电流的影响

用反向GD法研究了高栅压应力下的LDD nMOSFET中的损伤情况.发现这种应力下产生电流峰值随着应力时间的增大变小,峰值变小和氧化层中负陷阱电荷增大的趋势一致.峰值变小是由于应力中氧化层陷阱电子起主导作用,从而减小了漏电压的有效作用,使得产生率最大值变小.应用这种新模型定量得出了影响漏电压的等效电荷密度.     

Hot-carrier effects on gate-induced-drain-leakage (GIDL) current inthin-film SOI/NMOSFET's

The gate-induced-drain-leakage (GIDL) currents in thin-film SOI/NMOSFET's have been studied before and after front-channel hot-carrier stress. Both the normal-mode stress (with the front gate biased beyond the threshold voltage and the drain biased at a high positive voltage, while the source is grounded with the back gate) and the reverse-mode stress (with the source and drain interchanged) have been investigated. The following significant changes have been observed: i) an increase of the off-state drain GIDL current after the normal-mode stress, especially in the low gate field region, and ii) a decrease of the off-state GIDL current after the reverse-mode stress, especially in the high gate field region. These changes can be attributed to the hot-carrier induced interface traps and their effects on the parasitic bipolar transistor gain in the thin-film SOI/NMOSFET     

Enhanced degradation in polycrystalline silicon thin-filmtransistors under dynamic hot-carrier stress

We address the mechanisms responsible for the enhanced degradation in the polysilicon thin-film transistors under dynamic hot-carrier stress. Unlike the monotonic decrease of maximum transconductance (G_{m max}) in static stress, G_{m max} in dynamic stress is initially increased due to the channel shortening effect by holes injected into the gate oxide near the drain region and then decreased due to tail states generation at the gate oxide/channel interface and grain boundaries. The threshold voltage variations are dominated by two degradation mechanisms: (1) breaking of weak bonds and (2) breaking of strong bonds to obey the power-time dependence law with a slope of 0.4. The degradation of the sub-threshold slope is attributed to intra-grain bulk states generation     

Anomalous variations of OFF-State leakage current in poly-Si TFTunder static stress

Studies the anomalous variations of the OFF-state leakage current (I_OFF) in n-channel poly-Si thin-film transistors (TFTs) under static stress. The dominant mechanisms for the anomalous I_OFF can be attributed to (1) I_OFF increases due to channel hot electrons trapping at the gate oxide/channel interface and silicon grain boundaries and (2) I_OFF decreases due to hot holes accumulated/trapped near the channel/bottom oxide interface near the source region. Under the stress of high drain bias, serious impact ionization effect will occur to generate hot electrons and hot holes near the drain region. Some of holes will be injected into the gate oxide due to the vertical field (~(V_Gstress V_Dstress)/T _OX) near the drain and the others will be migrated from drain to source along the channel due to lateral electric field (~V_Dstress/L_CH)     

Trend transformation of drain-current degradation under drain-avalanche hot-carrier stress for CLC n-TFTs

Continuous-wave green laser-crystallized (CLC) single-grain-like polycrystalline silicon n-channel thin-film transistors (poly-Si n-TFTs) demonstrate the higher electron mobility and turn-on current than excimer laser annealing (ELA) poly-Si n-TFTs. Furthermore, high drain voltage accelerates the flowing electrons in n-type channel, and hence the hot-carriers possibly cause a serious damage near the drain region and deteriorate the source/drain (S/D) current. In this study, at high drain stress voltage, it appears that CLC TFT was degraded in the initial stress time (before 50 s), but the drain current was enhanced after 50 s. After 50 s stress time, the amount of grain boundary trap states near the drain side was getting large and the reflowing holes damaged the source region or injected into gate oxide near source side as well.     

The study of hot-carrier stress on poly-Si TFT employing C-V measurement

The degradation of n-type and p-type low-temperature polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) thin-film transistors (TFTs) due to hot-carrier stress was investigated by capacitance-voltage (C-V) measurement. In C-V measurements, the fixed charges in the gate oxide of TFTs are not affected by a small-applied signal, whereas the trap states in the bandgap respond to the applied frequency, so that the dominant degradation mechanism of poly-Si TFTs can be evaluated. The capacitance (C/sub GS/) between the source and the gate, as well as the capacitance (C/sub GD/) between the drain and the gate, were measured. The difference between the C/sub GD/ and the C/sub GS/ indicates the location of degradation in the TFT. Our experimental results showed that the degradation of n-type TFTs was caused by additional trap states in the grain boundary, whereas the degradation of p-type TFTs was caused by electron trapping into the gate oxide.     

Impact of gate-poly grain structure on the gate-oxide reliability[CMOS]

Time dependent dielectric breakdown of thin oxides, 1.5 to 5.0 nm has been studied for different gate-poly grain structures. The poly grain was varied by the poly deposition, and the source-drain (S/D) rapid thermal anneal (RTA) conditions. The study, which was done on fully fabricated CMOS devices, showed substantial reliability degradation in thin gate oxides (below 2.0 nm), when using S/D RTA temperatures above 1000°C. The results can be explained in terms of the interface roughness at the gate poly interface induced by the S/D RTA temperature above the viscoelastic point of the SiO₂. A possible mechanism for the drastic reliability degradation in thin gate oxides, is the protrusion of poly grains into the softening oxide at high temperature     

Hot-electron effects on AlGaAs/InGaAs/GaAs PHEMTs under accelerated DC stresses

The behavior of Schottky gate characteristics before and after hot-electron stress has been a relatively neglected topic. Thus, this paper discussed the effects of hot-electron accelerated stress on the DC characteristics of AlGaAs/InGaAs/GaAs PHEMTs as they relate to Schottky gate characteristics. It also presents studies of reverse Schottky gate characteristics before and after hot-electron stresses, as related to two major mechanisms: (1) the widening of the depletion region under the gate; and (2) the impact of the carriers trapped under the gate. The former induces a larger Schottky barrier height with a smaller reverse leakage current density than the latter, while the latter induces the opposite. Two hot-electron conditions are used to investigate the impact of the hot-electron stress on the gate leakage current. The gate leakage current decreases after a hot-electron stress, due the effect of hot-electron stress on the Schottky diode characteristics. Moreover, improvement in the noise performance is expected, due to the decrease in the gate leakage current. Both pre- and post-stress noise measurements have been done to demonstrate this.     

Reliability issues of offset drain transistors after different modes of static electrical stress

The reliability issues of Offset Drain Transistors (ODT's) after different modes of static electrical stress (high voltage uniform gate stress, high voltage drain stress and hot carrier stress) are presented. Besides, the evolution of the macroscopic electrical parameters of these devices after high voltage uniform gate stress, has been attributed quantitatively to the evolution of the bulk gate oxide trapping characteristics and the variation of the Si/SiO₂ interface state charge. Furthermore, qualification of these devices for application in non-volatile memory arrays as bit select transistor has been conducted.     

Electrical instability in short channel organic thin-film transistors induced by lucky-polaron mechanism

In this work we study the electrical stability under both gate bias stress and gate and drain bias stress of short channel (L = 5 μm) bottom contact/top gate OTFTs made on flexible substrate with solution-processed organic semiconductor and fluoropolymer gate dielectric. These devices show high field-effect mobility (μ_FE> 1 cm²V⁻¹s⁻¹) and excellent stability under gate bias stress (bias stress V_ds = 0V). However, after prolonged bias stress performed at high drain voltage, V_ds, the transfer characteristics show a decreased threshold voltage, degradation of the subthreshold slope and an apparent increase in the field effect mobility. Furthermore, the output characteristics show an asymmetry when measured in forward and reverse mode. These experimental results can be explained considering that the bias stress induces the damage of a small part of the device channel, localized close to the source contact. The analysis of the experimental data through 2D numerical simulations supports this explanation showing that the electrical characteristics after bias stress at high V_ds can be reproduced considering the creation of donor-like interface states and trapping of positive charge into the gate dielectric at the source end of the device channel. In order to explain this degradation mechanism, we suggest a new physical model that, assuming holes injection from the source contact into the channel in bounded polarons, envisages the defect creation at the interface near the source end of the channel induced by injection of holes that gained energy from both the high longitudinal electric fields and the polaron dissolution.     

A thorough study of quasi-breakdown phenomenon of thin gate oxidein dual-gate CMOSFET's

The conduction mechanism of the quasibreakdown (QB) mode for thin gate oxide has been studied in a dual-gate CMOSFET with a 3.7 nm thick gate oxide. Systematic carrier separation experiments were conducted to investigate the evolutions of gate, source/drain, and substrate currents before and after gate oxide quasibreakdown (QB). Our experimental results clearly show that QB is due to the formation of a local physically-damaged-region (LPDR) at Si-SiO₂ interface. At this region, the effective oxide thickness is reduced to the direct tunneling (DT) regime. The observed high gate leakage current is due to DT electron or hole currents through the region where the LPDR is generated. Twelve V_g, I_sub, I_sd/ versus time curves and forty eight I-V curves of carrier separation measurements have been demonstrated. All the curves can be explained in a unified way by the LPDR QB model and the proper interpretation of the carrier separation measurements. Particularly, under substrate injection stress condition, there is several orders of magnitude increase of I_sub(I_sd/) at the onset point of QB for n(p)-MOSFET, which mainly corresponds to valence electrons DT from the substrate to the gate, consequently, cold holes are left in the substrate and measured as substrate current. These cold holes have no contribution to the oxide breakdown and thus the lifetime of oxide after QB is very long. Under the gate injection stress condition, there is sudden drop and even change of sign of I_sub(I_sd/) at the onset point of QB for n(p)-MOSFET, which corresponds to the disappearance of impact ionization and the appearance of hole DT current from the substrate to the gate     

Reliability Mechanisms of LTPS-TFT With $hbox{HfO}_{2}$ Gate Dielectric: PBTI, NBTI, and Hot-Carrier Stress

In this paper, a comprehensive study of the reliability mechanisms of high-performance low-temperature polycrystalline-Si thin-film transistor (LTPS-TFT) with gate dielectric is reported for the first time. Various bias- and temperature-stress conditions, which correspond to positive-bias stress (PBS), positive-bias temperature instability (PBTI), negative-bias stress (NBS), negative-bias temperature instability (NBTI), and hot-carrier stress, are used to differentiate the distribution and mechanism of trap density states. The generation of deep-trap states of the effective interfacial layer (IL), tail-trap states of poly-Si grain boundaries, and electron trapping of the gate dielectric is observed for the PBS and PBTI of the LTPS-TFT. In addition, both the deep- and tail-trap states of the effective IL are generated under NBS and NBTI of the LTPS-TFT.     

Off-state breakdown effects on gate leakage current in powerpseudomorphic AlGaAs/InGaAs HEMTs

The effects of off-state breakdown on characteristics of power AlGaAs/InGaAs pseudomorphic HEMTs (PHEMTs) are investigated in detail. While the gate leakage current is substantially decreased after breakdown stress, no obvious changes in drain-to-source current and transconductance are observed. Prior to breakdown stress, gate leakage current shows a nearly ideal 1/f noise characteristic with an Ig² dependence, suggesting a surface generation-recombination current from the interface of the passivation layer. After stress, the gate current noise can be drastically reduced. The results suggest an alternative for alleviating the gate leakage current in PHEMTs     

超薄栅氧化物pMOSFET器件在软击穿后的特性

研究了在软击穿后MOS晶体管特性的退化.在晶体管上加均匀的电压应力直到软击穿发生的过程中监控晶体管的参数.在软击穿后,输出特性和转移特性只有小的改变.在软击穿发生时,漏端的电流和域值电压的退化是连续变化的.但是,在软击穿时栅漏电流突然有大量的增加.对软击穿后的栅漏电流增量的分析表明,软击穿后的电流机制是FN隧穿,这是软击穿引起的氧化物的势垒高度降低造成的.     

Effect of the post-gate annealing on the gate reliability of AlGaN/GaN HEMTs

In this paper,we investigated the effect of post-gate annealing (PGA) on reverse gate leakage and the reverse bias reli-ability of Al0.23Ga0.77N/GaN high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs).We found that the Poole-Frenkel (PF) emission is domin-ant in the reverse gate leakage current at the low reverse bias region (Vth ＜ VG ＜ 0 V) for the unannealed and annealed HEMTs.The emission barrier height of HEMT is increased from 0.139 to 0.256 eV after the PGA process,which results in a reduction of the reverse leakage current by more than one order.Besides,the reverse step stress was conducted to study the gate reliabil-ity of both HEMTs.After the stress,the unannealed HEMT shows a higher reverse leakage current due to the permanent dam-age of the Schottky gate.In contrast,the annealed HEMT shows a little change in reverse leakage current.This indicates that the PGA can reduce the reverse gate leakage and improve the gate reliability.     

Degradation of ultra-thin gate oxide LDD NMOSFET under GIDL stress

The degradation of device under GIDL(gate-induced drain leakage current)stress has been studied using LDD NMOSFETs with 1.4 nm gate oxides.Experimental result shows that the degradation of device parameters depends more strongly on Vd than on Vg.The characteristics of the GIDL current are used to analyze the damage generated during the stress.It is clearly found that the change of GIDL current before and after stress can be divided into two stages.The trapping of holes in the oxide is dominant in the first stage,but that of electrons in the oxide is dominant in the second stage.It is due to the common effects of edge direct tunneling and band-to-band tunneling.SILC(stress induced leakage current)in the NMOSFET decreases with increasing stress time under GIDL stress.The degradation characteristic of SILC also shows saturating time dependence.SILC is strongly dependent on the measured gate voltage.The higher the measured gate voltage,the less serious the degradation of the gate current.A likely mechanism is presented to explain the origin of SILC during GIDL stress.     

超薄栅氧化物pMOSFET器件在软击穿后的特性

研究了在软击穿后MOS晶体管特性的退化.在晶体管上加均匀的电压应力直到软击穿发生的过程中监控晶体管的参数.在软击穿后,输出特性和转移特性只有小的改变.在软击穿发生时,漏端的电流和域值电压的退化是连续变化的.但是,在软击穿时栅漏电流突然有大量的增加.对软击穿后的栅漏电流增量的分析表明,软击穿后的电流机制是FN隧穿,这是软击穿引起的氧化物的势垒高度降低造成的.