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     

Impact of gate direct tunneling current on circuit performance: asimulation study

The influence of gate direct tunneling current on ultrathin gate oxide MOS (1.1 nm⩽t_ox⩽1.5 nm, L_g=50-70 nm) circuits has been studied based on detailed simulations. For the gate oxide thickness down to 1.1 nm, gate direct tunneling currents, including the edge direct tunneling (EDT), show only a minor impact on low V_dd static-logic circuits. However, dynamic logic and analog circuits are more significantly influenced by the off-state leakage current for oxide thickness below 1.5 nm, under low-voltage operation. Based on the study, the oxide thicknesses which ensure the International Technological Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS) gate leakage limit are outlined both for high-performance and low-power devices     

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.     

Electrical Measurement of Local Stress and Lateral Diffusion Near Source/Drain Extension Corner of Uniaxially Stressed n-MOSFETs

On a 1.27-nm gate oxide n-MOSFET that undergoes longitudinal stress via a layout technique, subthreshold current is measured as a function of the gate edge to shallow-trench isolation (STI) spacing and is transformed via bandgap shift into the source/drain extension corner stress. The extracted local stress is quantitatively comparable with those of the channel as created by the gate direct tunneling measurement in inversion, the mobility measurement, and the threshold voltage measurement. In addition, its dependencies on the gate edge to STI spacing confirm the validity of the layout technique in controlling the corner or channel stress. The gate edge direct tunneling (EDT) measurement in accumulation straightforwardly leads to the quantified gate- to-source/drain-extension overlap length. Particularly, a retarded diffusion length of 1.1 nm for a stress change of -320 MPa and the resulting strain-induced activation energy both are in satisfactory agreement with those of the process simulation. A physically oriented analytic model is, therefore, reached, expressing the lateral diffusion as a function of the corner stress.     

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     

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     

New observation and the modeling of gate and drain currents inoff-state P-MOSFET's

The work reports new observations concerning the gate and drain currents measured at off-state conditions in buried-type p-channel LDD MOSFET devices. Detailed investigation of the observed phenomena reveals that 1) the drain current can be separated into two distinct components: band-to-band tunneling in the gate-to-drain overlap region and collection of holes generated via impact ionization by electrons inside the oxide; and 2) the gate current can be separated into two distinct components: the hot electron injection into the oxide and the Fowler-Nordheim electron tunneling through the oxide, At low negative drain voltage, the dominant component of the drain current is the hole generation inside the oxide. At high negative drain voltage, the drain current is essentially due to band-to-band tunneling, and it is correlated with the hot-electron injection-induced gate current     

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.     

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     

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.     

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.     

Thickness dependence of boron penetration through O2 and N2O-grown gate oxides and its impact on threshold voltagevariation

We report on a quantitative study of boron penetration from p⁺ polysilicon through 5- to 8-nm gate dielectrics prepared by rapid thermal oxidation in O₂ or N₂O. Using MOS capacitor measurements, we show that boron penetration exponentially increases with decreasing oxide thickness. We successfully describe this behavior with a simple physical model, and then use the model to predict the magnitude of boron penetration, N_B, for thicknesses other than those measured. We find that the minimum t_ox required to inhibit boron penetration is always 2-4 nm less when N₂O-grown gate oxides are used in place of O₂- grown oxides. We also employ the boron penetration model to explore the conditions under which boron-induced threshold voltage variation can become significant in ULSI technologies. Because of the strong dependence of boron penetration on t_ox, incremental variations in oxide thickness result in a large variation in N_B , leading to increased threshold voltage spreading and degraded process control. While the sensitivity of threshold voltage to oxide thickness variation is normally determined by channel doping and the resultant depletion charge, we find that for a nominal thickness of 6 nm, threshold voltage control is further degraded by penetrated boron densities as low as 10¹¹ cm^-2     

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     

Evidence of hole direct tunneling through ultrathin gate oxideusing P+ poly-SiGe gate

P⁺ poly-Si and poly-Si_0.75Ge_0.25-gated PMOS transistors with ultrathin gate oxides of 25 and 29 Å were used for this study. The difference in the gate work function was used to determine the mechanisms of gate tunneling current in such thin gate oxides, Under negative gate bias (inversion bias), it was found that the source/drain terminal serves as a source of holes for small V_g value, and as gate bias increases (more negative), it becomes a hole sink. These observations can be interpreted in terms of two competing mechanisms. For the first time, hole direct tunneling is reported, Hole direct tunneling is the dominant mechanism for -2 Vg<0 V. For Vg<-2 V, electron direct tunneling is dominant. Electron-hole pair generation by the tunneling electrons starts to dominate over hole direct tunneling only for V_g<-4 V     

Modeling study of ultrathin gate oxides using direct tunnelingcurrent and capacitance-voltage measurements in MOS devices

Using both quantum mechanical calculations for the silicon substrate and a modified WKB approximation for the transmission probability, direct tunneling currents across ultra-thin gate oxides of MOS structures have been modeled for electrons from the inversion layers in p-type Si substrates. The modeled direct tunneling currents have been compared to experimental data obtained from nMOSFET's with direct tunnel gate oxides. Excellent agreement between the model and experimental data for gate oxides as thin as 1.5 nm has been achieved. Advanced capacitance-voltage techniques have been employed to complement direct tunneling current modeling and measurements. With capacitance-voltage (C-V) techniques, direct tunneling currents can be used as a sensitive characterization technique for direct tunnel gate oxides. The effects of both silicon substrate doping concentration and polysilicon doping concentration on the direct tunneling current have also been studied as a function of applied gate voltage     

Mechanisms of interface trap-induced drain leakage current inoff-state n-MOSFET's

An interface trap-assisted tunneling and thermionic emission model has been developed to study an increased drain leakage current in off-state n-MOSFET's after hot carrier stress. In the model, a complete band-trap-band leakage path is formed at the Si/SiO₂ interface by hole emission from interface traps to a valence band and electron emission from interface traps to a conduction band. Both hole and electron emissions are carried out via quantum tunneling or thermal excitation. In this experiment, a 0.5 μm n-MOSFET was subjected to a dc voltage stress to generate interface traps. The drain leakage current was characterized to compare with the model. Our study reveals that the interface trap-assisted two-step tunneling, hole tunneling followed by electron tunneling, holds responsibility for the leakage current at a large drain-to-gate bias (V_dg). The lateral field plays a major role in the two-step tunneling process. The additional drain leakage current due to band-trap-band tunneling is adequately described by an analytical expression ΔI_d=Aexp(B_it/F). The value of B_it about 13 mV/cm was obtained in a stressed MOSFET, which is significantly lower than in the GIDL current attributed to direct band-to-band tunneling. As V_dg decreases, a thermionic-field emission mechanism, hole thermionic emission and electron tunneling, becomes a primary leakage path. At a sufficiently low V_dg, our model reduces to the Shockley-Read-Hall theory and thermal generation of electron-hole pairs through traps is dominant     

A physical model for hole direct tunneling current in p+poly-gate pMOSFETs with ultrathin gate oxides

A model of the hole direct tunneling gate current accounting for heavy and light hole's subbands in the quantized inversion layer is built explicitly. This model comprises four key physical parameters: inversion layer charge density, hole impact frequency on SiO₂-Si interface, WKB transmission probability, and reflection correction factor. With the effective hole mass m_oxh =0.51 M_o for the parabolic dispersion relationship in the oxide, experimental reproduction without any parameter adjustment is consistently achieved in p⁺ poly-gate pMOSFETs with 1.23, 1.85, and 2.16 nm gate oxide thicknesses. The proposed model can thereby serve as a promising characterization means of direct tunnel oxides. In particular, it is calculated that the secondary subbands and beyond, although occupying few holes, indeed contribute substantially to the direct tunneling conduction due to effective lower barrier heights, and are prevailing over the first subbands for reducing the oxide field down below 1 MV/cm     

Transistor characteristics with Ta2O5 gatedielectric

As the gate oxide thickness decreases below 2 nm, the gate leakage current increases dramatically due to direct tunneling current. This large gate leakage current will be an obstacle to reducing gate oxide thickness for the high speed operation of future devices. A MOS transistor with Ta₂O₅ gate dielectric is fabricated and characterized as a possible replacement for MOS transistors with ultra-thin gate silicon dioxide. Mobility, I_d-V_d, I_d-V_g, gate leakage current, and capacitance-voltage (C-V) characteristics of Ta₂O₅ transistors are evaluated and compared with SiO₂ transistors. The gate leakage current is three to five orders smaller for Ta₂O₅ transistors than SiO₂ transistors     

不同厚度超薄栅氧化物MOSFET的应力诱导漏电流

研究了不同厚度的超薄栅1.9nm到3.0 nm器件在恒压应力下的栅电流变化.实验结果显示应力诱导漏电流包括两个部分,一部分是由界面陷阱辅助隧穿引起的,另一部分是氧化物陷阱辅助隧穿引起的.     

Model and analysis of gate leakage current in ultrathin nitridedoxide MOSFETs

An analytical model of the gate leakage current in ultrathin gate nitrided oxide MOSFETs is presented. This model is based on an inelastic trap-assisted tunneling (ITAT) mechanism combined with a semi-empirical gate leakage current formulation. The tunneling-in and tunneling-out current are calculated by modifying the expression of the direct tunneling current model of BSIM. For a microscopic interpretation of the ITAT process, resonant tunneling (RT) through the oxide barrier containing potential wells associated with the localized states is proposed. We employ a quantum-mechanical model to treat electronic transitions within the trap potential well. The ITAT current model is then quantitatively consistent with the summation of the resonant tunneling current components of resonant energy levels. The 1/f noise observed in the gate leakage current implies the existence of slow processes with long relaxation times in the oxide barrier. In order to verify the proposed ITAT current model, an accurate method for determining the device parameters is necessary. The oxide thickness and the interface trap density of the gate oxide in the 20-30 Å thickness range are evaluated by the quasi-static capacitance-voltage (C-V) method, dealing especially with quantum-mechanical and polysilicon effects