Hot-carrier degradation behavior of thin-film SOI nMOSFET withisolation scheme and buried oxide thickness

Hot-carrier degradation behavior of thin-film SOI (silicon-on-insulator) nMOSFETs with various isolation techniques and buried oxide (BOX) thickness has been investigated focused on the stress behavior in the SOI structure. LOCOS (local oxidation of silicon) and STI (shallow trench isolation) processes are used as isolation techniques. Buried oxide thickness is 100 and 400 nm, respectively. From the isolation point of view, STI-processed SOI devices have better hot-carrier immunity than LOCOS-isolated SOI devices. In terms of BOX thickness, the thick BOX case has better hot-carrier degradation characteristics than the thin one. It is found that STI process and thick BOX cases induce smaller stress than LOCOS process and thin BOX cases, resulting in better hot-carrier immunity     

An anomalous device degradation of SOI narrow width devices causedby STI edge influence

The effects of shallow trench isolation (STI) on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) devices are investigated for various device sizes with three different gate shapes. Both NMOSFETs and PMOSFETs with the channel region butted to the STI show a reduction in mobility (NMOSFETs and PMOSFETs) and an increase of low-frequency noise as the channel width is reduced. In comparison, the devices without the STI-butted channel region show much less variation in mobility for various channel widths. The degradation of MOSFET yield in SOI MOSFETs with the STI is found to be dependent on the device width since the contribution of the interface roughness (or damage) between the STI and the channel formed during the dry etch process becomes significant with the decrease of channel width and the increase of channel length. From the charge-pumping results, the interface state (N_it) generated by the STI process was identified as the cause of the anomalous degradation     

Influences of silicon-rich shallow trench isolation on total ionizing dose hardening and gate oxide integrity in a 130 nm partially depleted SOI CMOS technology

The influences of silicon-rich shallow trench isolation (STI) on total ionizing dose (TID) hardening and gate oxide integrity (GOI) in a 130 nm partially depleted silicon-on-insulator (SOI) complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology are investigated. Radiation-induced charges buildup in STI oxide can invert the parasitic sidewall channel of the n-channel transistor, which will increase the off-state leakage current and decrease the threshold voltage for the main transistor. Compared with the general STI process, the silicon-rich STI process can significantly suppress the increase in leakage current and negative shifts in subthreshold region induced by the total dose radiation, implying TID hardening for STI trench oxide. However, the silicon-rich STI process has a deleterious impact on GOI. It leads to the thin gate oxide thickness at trench corner and lowers the gate oxide breakdown voltage. Issues of gate oxide integrity induced by silicon-rich STI are investigated in this paper, and an optimized process to solve this problem is proposed and examined. Finally, the TID response of the optimized silicon-rich STI process is presented in comparison to the general and silicon-rich STI processes.     

Low-frequency noise degradation caused by STI interface effects inSOI-MOSFETs

The low-frequency noise characteristics of SOI MOSFETs with shallow trench isolation (STI) structure are investigated for various device sizes with three different gate shapes. Devices with channel region butted to the STI show an increase of low-frequency noise as the channel width is reduced. In comparison, the devices without the STI butted to the channel region show much less increase of noise power spectral density with channel width. From the charge pumping and noise measurement results, the interface-state generated by the STI process is identified as the cause of these anomalous phenomena     

High-current small-parasitic-capacitance MOSFET on a poly-Siinterlayered (PSI:Ψ) SOI wafer

A new type of silicon-on insulator (SOI) structure has been fabricated by using direct bonding technology to bury multilayered films consisting of poly-Si and SiO₂. A device with an ideal epitaxial channel structure was fabricated using a conventional MOS process on this novel multilayered SOI (100-nm SOI/10-nm SiO₂/poly-Si/500-nm SiO₂) wafer. In this device, the highly concentrated p⁺ poly-Si just beneath the nMOS channel region acts as a punchthrough stopper, and the buried thin backgate oxide under the SOI layer acts as an impurity diffusion barrier, keeping the impurity concentration in the SOI film at its original low level. The device fabricated was an ultrathin SOI MOSFET capable of operating at a current 1.5 times that of conventional hundred-nm devices at low voltages     

Ultrathin-body SOI MOSFET for deep-sub-tenth micron era

A 40-nm-gate-length ultrathin-body (UTB) nMOSFET is presented with 20-nm body thickness and 2.4-nm gate oxide. The UTB structure eliminates leakage paths and is an extension of a conventional SOI MOSFET for deep-sub-tenth micron CMOS. Simulation shows that the UTB SOI MOSFET can be scaled down to 18-nm gate length with <5 nm UTB. A raised poly-Si S/D process is employed to reduce the parasitic series resistance     

Fabrication of self-aligned 90-nm fully depleted SOI CMOS SLOTFETs

We have developed a novel sub-100-nm fully depleted silicon-on-insulator (SOI) CMOS fabrication process, in which conventional 248-nm optical lithography and nitride spacer technology are used to define slots in a sacrificial layer (SLOTFET process). This process features a locally thinned SOI channel with raised source-drain regions, and a low-resistance T-shaped poly-Si gate; Both n- and p-channel MOSFETs with 90-nm gate length have been demonstrated. At a 0.5 V bias voltage, ring-oscillator propagation delay of less than 50 ps per stage has been measured     

具有L型栅极场板的双槽双栅绝缘体上硅器件新结构

为了降低绝缘体上硅（SOI）功率器件的比导通电阻,同时提高击穿电压,利用场板（FP）技术,提出了一种具有L型栅极场板的双槽双栅SOI器件新结构.在双槽结构的基础上,在氧化槽中形成第二栅极,并延伸形成L型栅极场板.漂移区引入的氧化槽折叠了漂移区长度,提高了击穿电压;对称的双栅结构形成双导电沟道,加宽了电流纵向传输面积,使比导通电阻显著降低;L型场板对漂移区电场进行重塑,使漂移区浓度大幅度增加,比导通电阻进一步降低.仿真结果表明：在保证最高优值条件下,相比传统SOI结构,器件尺寸相同时,新结构的击穿电压提高了123%,比导通电阻降低了32%;击穿电压相同时,新结构的比导通电阻降低了87.5%;相比双槽SOI结构,器件尺寸相同时,新结构不仅保持了双槽结构的高压特性,而且比导通电阻降低了46%.     

Isolation edge effect depending on gate length of MOSFETs withvarious isolation structures

The gate length (L) dependence of the isolation edge effect is investigated for MOSFETs with various isolation structures. We extract the isolation edge effect for a single L by comparing with an H-shaped gate MOSFET which did not have any influence from the isolation edges. For shallow trench isolation (STI), the isolation edge effect is enhanced for L around the onset of the short channel effect (SCE) and is more prominent for a trench edge with a deeper dip. On the other hand, for the local oxidation of silicon (LOCOS) isolation with an elevated field oxide edge (i.e., the bird's beak), the isolation edge effect operates in the opposite direction against the cases of STI, though it is enhanced around the SCE appearance point. The L dependence is successfully explained using the charge sharing model where the charge shared by the mixing effect between the SCE and the (inverse) narrow width effect [(I)NWE] is introduced at the channel corners. The enhancement of the isolation edge effect results from that the fraction of the charge shared by the mixing effect depends on L. In addition, the difference between STI and LOCOS occurs because the mixing effect for STI is opposite to that for LOCOS     

Direct observation of local strain field for ULSI devices

The in-depth profile of strain distribution from the silicon surface is one of the most important pieces of information for optimizing the device performance. The convergent-beam electron diffraction(CBED) method has been applied to analyze the local strain filed of the active regions for both test structure with the shallow trench isolation(STI) and the conventional LOCOS on a cross-sectional surface. As a result, strain distribution was observed successfully. It was found that the compressive stress exist all over the survey regions. The active region close to the bottom corner of the STI shows a larger stress than that of the conventional LOCOS. It is demonstrated that the CBED technique is very effective for the determination oflocal strain field in a small area of semiconductors and the optimizing of the STI structure andfabrication process.     

A fully depleted lean-channel transistor (DELTA)-a novel verticalultrathin SOI MOSFET

A fully depleted lean-channel transistor (DELTA) that has a gate with a vertical ultrathin SOI structure is reported. In the deep submicrometer region, selective oxidation is useful in realizing SOI isolation. It provides high crystalline quality, as good as that of conventional bulk single-crystal devices. Using experiments and three-dimensional simulation, it was shown that the gate structure has effective channel controllability and its vertical ultrathin SOI structure provides superior device characteristics     

The spacer/replacer concept: a viable route for sub-100 nmultrathin-film fully-depleted SOI CMOS

In this work, we introduce the Spacer/Replacer concept, a new concept to improve the device performance of ultrathin-film fully-depleted (FD) SOI CMOS transistors. High-performance FD SOI CMOS transistors are demonstrated with a silicon film thickness of 30 nm and physical gate-lengths down to 0.1 μm. The approach uses selective epitaxial growth of silicon to form raised source/drains while avoiding the simultaneous formation of a T-shaped poly-Si gate. In addition, the introduced concept eases the integration issues related to the ultrathin silicon film     

A high-performance polycrystalline silicon thin film transistorwith a silicon nitride gate insulator

We have fabricated a high performance polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) thin film transistor (TFT) with a silicon-nitride (SiN_x ) gate insulator using three stacked layers: very thin laser of hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H), SiN_x and laser annealed poly-Si. After patterning thin a-Si:H/SiN_x layers, gate, and source/drain regions were ion-doped and then Ni layer was deposited. This structure was annealed at 250°C to form a NiSi silicide phase. The low resistive Ni silicides were introduced as gate/source/drain electrodes in order to reduce the process steps. The poly-Si with a grain size of 250 nm and low resistance n⁺ poly-Si for ohmic contact were introduced to achieve a high performance TFT. The fabricated poly-Si TFT exhibited a field effect mobility of 262 cm²/Vs and a threshold voltage of 1 V     

Gate-overlapped lightly doped drain poly-Si thin-film transistorsfor large area-AMLCD

We have fabricated a gate-overlapped lightly doped drain (GO-LDD) polycrystalline silicon thin-film transistor (poly-Si TFT) applicable for large area AMLCD by employing the uniform and low-temperature doping techniques, such as ion shower doping and in situ doping. Experimental results show that the leakage current of the proposed TFT's is reduced by more than the magnitude of two orders, compared with that of conventional nonoffset TFT, while the ON current is scarcely decreased. It is verified by the device simulator that the electron concentration in the LDD region is increased under the ON state and decreased under the OFF state due to the field plate with gate potential over the LDD region. Furthermore, the vertical peak electric field in the LDD region is decreased significantly by the extended field plate potential during the OFF state. It is observed that the gate bias stress degrades significantly the subthreshold slope of the ion shower doped GO-LDD TFT's at the low drain bias but does not degrade the device characteristics of those with in situ doping due to the high-quality TEOS SiO₂ interlayer     

Electrical analysis of mechanical stress induced by STI in short MOSFETs using externally applied stress

This paper presents an electrical analysis of mechanical stress induced by shallow trench isolation (STI) on MOSFETs of advanced 0.13 /spl mu/m bulk and silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technologies. By applying external calibrated stress, we present piezoresistive coefficients measurements on these technologies, and we compare small and long transistors electrical responses, evidencing the strong effect of source drain resistance R/sub sd/. Then, using the same approach on short devices with different gate-edge-to-STI distances, we quantitatively evaluate stress profile induced by STI and its mean value under the gate of the devices. Results are discussed to explain differences between bulk and SOI technologies, as well as between nMOS and pMOS. We show that the observed higher pMOS drain current shift is related to the process, and may be explained by doping amorphization and recrystallization effects, and not by a piezoresistive coefficient difference as usually assumed.     

Degradation characteristics of STI and MESA-isolated thin-film SOICMOS

I-V degradations of STI (shallow trench isolation) and MESA-isolated SOI are reported for devices with a given threshold voltage design (V_TH≈0.4 V). We show that degradation characteristics of the STI and MESA SOI are quite different from strain-induced degradation observed in LOCOS SOI. It is found that the nMOSFET's I-V degradation becomes more pronounced while pMOSFETs remain relatively constant as the silicon thickness (t_si) is reduced. The reduction of nMOSFET's drive current is attributed to the mobility degradation as the channel concentration is increased, whereas for the pMOSFETs, due to the lesser sensitivity of the hole to the Coulomb scattering, no degradation is observed     

A comprehensive study of suppression of boron penetration byamorphous-Si gate in P+-gate PMOS devices

This paper presents a comprehensive study of the impact of the silicon gate structure on the suppression of boron penetration in p⁺-gate devices. The characteristics and reliability for different gate structures (poly-Si, α-Si, poly-Si/poly-Si, poly-Si/α-Si, α-Si/poly-Si, and α-Si/α-Si) in p ⁺ polygate PMOS devices are investigated in detail. The suppression of boron penetration by the nitrided gate oxide is also discussed. The comparison is based on flatband voltage shift as well as the value of charge to breakdown. Results show that the effect of boron diffusion through the thin gate oxide in p⁺ polygate PMOS devices can be significantly suppressed by employing the as-deposited amorphous silicon gate. Stacked structures can also be employed to suppress boron penetration at the expense of higher polygate resistance. The single layer as-deposited amorphous silicon is a suitable silicon gate material in the p⁺-gate PMOS device for future dual-gate CMOS process. In addition, by employing a long time annealing at 600°C prior to p⁺-gate ion implantation and activation, further improvements in suppression of boron penetration, polygate resistance, and gate oxide reliability can be achieved for the as-deposited amorphous-Si gate. Modifying the silicon gate structure instead of the gate dielectrics is an effective approach to suppress the boron penetration effect     

A novel sacrificial gate stack process for suppression of boronpenetration in p-MOSFET with shallow BF2-implantedsource/drain extension

A novel process flow employing a sacrificial tetraethyl orthosilicate/polycrystalline silicon (TEOS/poly-Si) gate stack is proposed for fabricating fluorine-enhanced-boron-penetration-free p-channel metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors (p-MOSFET's) with shallow BF₂-implanted source/drain (S/D) extension. With the presence of the sacrificial TEOS/poly-Si gate stack as the mask during the shallow BF₂ implant, the incorporated fluorine atoms are trapped in the sacrificial TEOS top layer and can be subsequently removed. The new process thus offers a unique opportunity of achieving an ultra shallow S/D extension characteristic of the BF₂ shallow implant, while not suffering from any fluorine-enhanced boron penetration normally accompanying the BF₂ implant. Excellent transistor performance with improved gate oxide integrity has been successfully demonstrated on p-MOSFET's fabricated with the new process flow     

一种新型的低导通电阻折叠硅SOI LDMOS

提出了一种具有折叠硅表面SOI-LDMOS(FSOI-LDMOS)新结构.它是将硅表面从沟道到漏端的导电层刻蚀成相互排列的折叠状,且将栅电极在较薄的场氧化层上一直扩展到漏端.由于扩展栅电极的电场调制作用使FSOI-LDMOS在比一般SOI-LDMOS浓度高的漂移区表面,包括折叠硅槽侧面形成多数载流子积累,积累的多数载流子大大降低了漂移区的导通电阻.并且沟道反型层浓度基于折叠的硅表面而双倍增加,沟道导通电阻降低.通过三维仿真软件ISE分析,这种结构可以在低于40V左右的击穿电压下,获得超低的比导通电阻.     

Stress-induced leakage current in p+ poly MOS capacitorswith poly-Si and poly-Si0.7Ge0.3 gatematerial

The gate bias polarity dependence of stress-induced leakage current (SILC) of PMOS capacitors with a p⁺ polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) and polycrystalline Silicon-Germanium (poly-Si_0.7 Ge_0.3) gate on 5.6-nm thick gate oxides has been investigated. It is shown that the SILC characteristics are highly asymmetric with gate bias polarity. This asymmetric behavior is explained by the occurrence of a different injection mechanism for negative bias, compared to positive bias where Fowler-Nordheim (FN) tunneling is the main conduction mechanism. For gate injection, a larger oxide field is required to obtain the same tunneling current, which leads to reduced SILC at low fields. Moreover, at negative gate bias, the higher valence band position of poly-SiGe compared to poly-Si reduces the barrier height for tunneling to traps and hence leads to increased SILC. At positive gate bias, reduced SILC is observed for poly-SiGe gates compared to poly-Si gates. This is most likely due to a lower concentration of Boron in the dielectric in the case of poly-SiGe compared to poly-Si. This makes Boron-doped poly-SiGe a very interesting gate material for nonvolatile memory devices