Subbreakdown drain leakage current in MOSFET

Significant drain leakage current can be detected at drain voltages much lower than the breakdown voltage. This subbreakdown leakage can dominate the drain leakage current at zero VGin thin-oxide MOSFET's. The mechanism is shown to be band-to-band tunneling in Si in the drain/gate overlap region. In order to limit the leakage current to 0.1 pA/µm, the oxide field in the gate-to-drain overlap region must be limited to 2.2 MV/cm. This may set another constraint for oxide thickness or power supply voltage.     

Characterization and modeling of edge direct tunneling (EDT)leakage in ultrathin gate oxide MOSFETs

This paper examines the edge direct tunneling (EDT) of electron from n⁺ polysilicon to underlying n-type drain extension in off-state n-channel MOSFETs having ultrathin gate oxide thicknesses (1.4-2.4 nm). It is found that for thinner oxide thicknesses, electron EDT is more pronounced over the conventional gate-induced-drain-leakage (GIDL), bulk band-to-band tunneling (BTBT) and gate-to-substrate tunneling, and as a result, the induced gate and drain leakage is better measured per unit gate width. A physical model is for the first time derived for the oxide field E_OX at the gate edge by accounting for electron subband in the quantized accumulation polysilicon surface. This model relates E_OX to the gate-to-drain voltage, oxide thickness, and doping concentration of drain extension. Once fox is known, an existing DT model readily reproduces EDT I-V consistently and the tunneling path size extracted falls adequately within the gate-to-drain overlap region. The ultimate oxide thickness limit due to EDT is projected as well     

A comprehensive study of hot carrier stress-induced drain leakagecurrent degradation in thin-oxide n-MOSFETs

The mechanisms and characteristics of hot carrier stress-induced drain leakage current degradation in thin-oxide n-MOSFETs are investigated. Both interface trap and oxide charge effects are analyzed. Various drain leakage current components at zero V_gs such as drain-to source subthreshold leakage, band-to-band tunneling current, and interface trap-induced leakage are taken into account. The trap-assisted drain leakage mechanisms include charge sequential tunneling current, thermionic-field emission current, and Shockley-Read-Hall generation current. The dependence of drain leakage current on supply voltage, temperature, and oxide thickness is characterized. Our result shows that the trap-assisted leakage may become a dominant drain leakage mechanism as supply voltage is reduced. In addition, a strong oxide thickness dependence of drain leakage degradation is observed. In ultra-thin gate oxide (30 Å) n-MOSFETs, drain leakage current degradation is attributed mostly to interface trap creation, while in thicker oxide (53 Å) devices, the drain leakage current exhibits two-stage degradation, a power law degradation rate in the initial stage due to interface trap generation, followed by an accelerated degradation rate in the second stage caused by oxide charge creation     

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.     

一种采用带-带隧穿热电子注入编程的新型快闪存贮器

提出一种采用带-带隧穿热电子注入编程的新型快闪存贮器结构,在便携式低功耗的code闪存中有着广泛的应用前景.该结构采用带-带隧穿热电子注入 (BBHE)进行"写"编程,采用源极Fowler-Nordheim隧穿机制进行擦除.研究显示控制栅编程电压为8V,漏极漏电流只有3μA/μm左右,注入系数为4×10-4,编程速度可达16μs,0.8μm存贮管的读电流可达60μA/μm.该新型结构具有高编程速度、低编程电压、低功耗、大读电流和高访问速度等优点.     

一种采用带-带隧穿热电子注入编程的新型快闪存贮器

提出一种采用带-带隧穿热电子注入编程的新型快闪存贮器结构,在便携式低功耗的code闪存中有着广泛的应用前景.该结构采用带-带隧穿热电子注入 (BBHE)进行"写"编程,采用源极Fowler-Nordheim隧穿机制进行擦除.研究显示控制栅编程电压为8V,漏极漏电流只有3μA/μm左右,注入系数为4×10-4,编程速度可达16μs,0.8μm存贮管的读电流可达60μA/μm.该新型结构具有高编程速度、低编程电压、低功耗、大读电流和高访问速度等优点.     

Off-state instabilities in thermally nitrided-oxide n-MOSFETs

The significant off-stage gate current of nitrided-oxide n-MOSFETs can be attributed to severe hot-hole injection into the gate oxide during band-to-band (B-B) tunneling due to a nitridation-induced lowering of the barrier height for hole injection. Some of the injected holes are even trapped in the gate oxide above the deep-depletion layer of the drain and thus decrease the gate-induced drain leakage (GIDL) current. A subsequent hot-electron injection into the gate oxide can neutralize these trapped holes and make the reduced GIDL current recover, even increase beyond the original value. The proposed mechanism of the GIDL degradation and recovery behaviors can be confirmed by the observed change in the ratio of the substrate to source currents, as well as by the field-distribution analysis of the gate oxide under stressing     

Oxide-trap-induced instability of GIDL of thermally nitrided-oxideN-MOSFET's under stress

Some holes created from band-to-band (B-B) tunneling in the deep-depletion region of the drain can be injected into the gate oxide and reduce the vertical field there. As a result, gate-induced drain leakage (GIDL) current decreases. This kind of hot-hole injection depends on the voltage difference between the drain and gate, due to nitridation-induced lowering of the barrier height for hole injection at the SiO₂-Si interface. The subsequent hot-electron injection can neutralize these trapped holes, and make the GIDL current recover, and even increase beyond its original value. Since the trapped charges also affect the lateral field, the observed change in the ratio of substrate to source currents further confirms the proposed mechanism for the GIDL degradation and recovery behavior     

Drain-avalanche and hole-trapping induced gate leakage inthin-oxide MOS devices

Leakage current components due to band-to-band tunneling and avalanche breakdown in thin-oxide (90-160 Å) gated-diode structures are discussed. Experimental results show that while the band-to-band tunneling current is not sensitive to channel doping concentration, the avalanche current is sensitive to channel doping concentration in the range of 10¹⁶ to 10¹⁷ cm^-3. For oxides thicker than 110 Å, the gate current is found to be dominated by hot-hole injection and for oxides thinner than 110 Å the gate current is dominated by Fowler-Nordheim electron tunneling. After hot-hole injection, the gate oxide exhibits significant low-level leakage, which is explained by the barrier-lowering effect caused by the trapped holes in the oxide     

A study of the effects of tunneling currents and reliability of sub-2 nm gate oxides on scaled n-MOSFETs

This work examined various components of direct gate tunneling currents and analyzed reliability of ultrathin gate oxides (1.4–2 nm) in scaled n-metal-oxide-semiconductor field effective transistor (MOSFETs). Direct gate tunneling current components were studied both experimentally and theoretically. In addition to gate tunneling currents, oxide reliability was investigated as well. Constant voltage stressing was applied to the gate oxides. The oxide breakdown behaviors were observed and their effects on device performance were studied. The ultrathin oxides in scaled n-MOSFETs used in this study showed distinct breakdown behavior and strong location dependence. No “soft” breakdown was seen for 1.5 nm oxide with small area, implying the importance of using small and more realistic MOS devices for ultrathin oxide reliability study instead of using large area devices. Higher frequency of oxide breakdowns in the source/drain extension to the gate overlap region was then observed in the channel region. Possible explanations to the observed breakdown behaviors were proposed based on the quantum mechanical effects and point-contact model for electron conduction in the oxide during the breakdown. It was concluded that the source/drain extension to the gate overlap regions have strong effects on the device performance in terms of both gate tunneling currents and oxide reliability.     

The combined effects of band-to-band tunneling and impactionization in the off regime of an LDD MOSFET

Fully self-consistent two-dimensional simulation of band-to-band tunneling (BTBT) in a lightly doped drain (LDD) MOSFET is reported. The simulation results are compared to experimental data and explain the observed current leakage effects. At low drain bias the leakage currents in the off regime can be explained by BTBT alone. At high drain bias and at deep subthreshold gate bias the leakage current is increasingly due to avalanche generation by carriers created initially in BTBT and accelerated subsequently in the high electric fields     

Stress induced gate–drain leakage current in ultra-thin gate oxide

Ultra-thin gate oxide reliability, in large area MOSFETs, can be monitored by measuring the gate current when the substrate is depleted. When the channel length is scaled down, the tunneling current associated with the source/drain extension region (SDE) to the gate–overlap regions can dominate the gate current. In N-MOSFETs, as a function of the negative gate voltage two components of the gate–drain leakage current should be considered, the first for V_FB < V_G < 0 V and the second for V_G < V_FB. These components are studied in this work before and after voltage stresses. The aim of this work is to see whether this gate–drain current can be used to monitor the oxide degradation above or near the source and/or drain extension region in N-MOSFETs. It is important because the most serious circuit-killing breakdown occurs above or near the drain (or source) extension region. Finally, we show that it is necessary, before explaining the gate LVSILC curves obtained after stresses on short-channel devices, to verify which is the dominate current at low voltage.     

Enhanced gate induced drain leakage current in HfO2 MOSFETs

The substrate current of high-κ dielectric MOSFETs has been studied using dc sweep and transient (down to 100 μs per I-V curve) electrical measurements. These measurements reveal trap-assisted substrate current components in addition to the traditional bell-shaped impact ionization current. By separating the transversal and lateral electric field contributions, the gate induced drain leakage (GIDL) is shown to dominate the substrate current at low gate biases. At high gate biases, tunneling of valence band electrons from the bulk to the gate dominates. The results show that the GIDL current is the result of band-to-band tunneling assisted by traps located at the HfO₂/SiO₂ interface and transition layer, and not the result of oxide charging.     

Hot-carrier-stress effects on gate-induced drain leakage current inn-channel MOSFETs

The effects of hot-carrier stress on gate-induced drain leakage (GIDL) current in n-channel MOSFETs with thin gate oxides are studied. It is found that the effects of generated interface traps (ΔD _it) and oxide trapped charge on the GIDL current enhancement are very different. Specifically, it is shown that the oxide trapped charge only shifts the flat-band voltage, unlike ΔD _it. Besides band-to-band (B-B) tunneling, ΔD _it introduces an additional trap-assisted leakage current component. Evidence for this extra component is provided by hole injection. While trapped-charge induced leakage current can be eliminated by a hole injection subsequent to stress, such injection does not suppress interface-trap-induced leakage current     

Gate and drain currents in off-state buried-type p-channel LDDMOSFETs

The buried-type p-channel LDD MOSFETs biased at high positive gate voltage exhibit novel characteristics: (1) the ratio of the drain to gate currents is about 1×10^-3 to 5×10^-3; and (2) the gate and drain currents both are functions of only the gate voltage minus the n-well bias. Such characteristics are addressed based on the formation of the surface n ⁺ inversion layer due to the punchthrough of the buried channel to the underlying shallow p-n junction. The measured gate current is due to the Fowler-Nordheim tunneling of electrons from this inversion layer surface and the holes generated within the high-field oxide constitute the drain current. The n⁺ inversion layer surface potential is found to be equal to the n-well bias plus 0.55 V. As a result, both the oxide field and the gate and drain currents are independent of drain voltage     

Gate current injection initiated by electron band-to-band tunnelingin MOS devices

A substrate hot-electron injection across the gate oxide initiated by electron band-to-band tunneling in p-type silicon is discussed. The injection electrons are generated by the energetic holes which are originally left behind by the band-to-band tunneling electrons. The injection can be easily controlled by an appropriate bias to a nearby n ⁺ diffusion, and the injection efficiency can be as high as 10^-2. Due to the small oxide field during injection, the electron fluence through the oxide before failure is much higher than under a Fowler-Nordheim tunneling stressing. These advantages make this band-to-band tunneling induced substrate hot-electron injection a possible programming mechanism for nonvolatile memories     

Gate oxide thickness dependence of edge charge trapping in NMOS transistors caused by charge injection under constant-current stress

This brief reports a study of charge injection-induced edge charge trapping in the gate oxide overlapping the drain extension which has an impact on the drain leakage current. The edge charge trapping is determined for the gate oxide thickness of 6.5, 3.9, and 2.0 nm by using a simple approach to analyze the change of the band-to-band tunneling current measured with a three-terminal gate-controlled-diode configuration. The edge charge trapping has a strong dependence on the gate oxide thickness, and it is different from the charge trapping in the oxide over the channel. A plausible explanation for both the oxide thickness dependence of the edge charge trapping and the difference between the edge charge trapping and the charge trapping over the channel is presented.     

Gate current in OFF-state MOSFET

The source of the gate current in MOSFETs due to an applied drain voltage with the gate grounded is studied. It is found that for 100-Å or thinner oxide, the gate current is due to Fowler-Nordheim (F-N) tunneling electrons from the gate. With increasing oxide thickness, hot-hole injection becomes the dominant contribution to the gate current. This gate current can cause I_D walkout, which is a decrease in the gate-induced drain leakage current, and hole trapping, which becomes important for device degradation study. It can also be used to advantage in EPROM (erasable programmable read-only memory) erasure     

An enhanced erase mechanism during channel Fowler-Nordheimtunneling in flash EPROM memory devices

An enhanced erase behaviour observed during the channel Fowler-Nordheim (FN) tunneling erase operation was examined in details. This enhanced erase occurs when a high p-well voltage is used, with the source and drain junctions of the cell left floating, during the erase operation. Our investigation indicates that the floating source and drain take on a high junction voltage during the p-well voltage transient. This causes transient band-to-band tunneling, and in some cases, junction avalanche breakdown, to occur in the source and drain junctions. As a result, hot-hole injection into the floating gate takes place to create this enhanced erase phenomenon     

Back-gate bias enhanced band-to-band tunneling leakage in scaledMOSFET's

The drain leakage current in MOSFET's in the present standard process is separated into three distinct components: the subthreshold conduction, the surface band-to-band tunneling (BTBT), and the bulk BTBT. Each of the three shows different dependencies on back-gate bias. As a result, the bulk BTBT, increasing exponentially with increasing the magnitude of back-gate reverse bias, promptly dominates the drain leakage. Additional experiment highlights the effect of the increased bulk dopant concentrations as in next-generation scaled MOSFET's on the bulk BTBT. This sets the bulk BTBT a significant constraint to the low-voltage, low-power, high-density CMOS integrated circuits employing the back-gate reverse bias. In this work, the measured drain leakage of interest is successfully reproduced by two-dimensional (2-D) device simulation