Determination of electron and hole effective masses in thermal oxide utilizing an n-channel silicon MOSFET

BOEMDET-Band Offsets and Effective Mass Determination Technique utilizing Fowler-Nordheim tunneling slope constants in MIS devices on silicon

“…Taking the ratios of these nominal values as 3.8/8.9 and 5.1/8.9 gives the electron and hole effective masses in the SiO 2 of 0.427m and 0.573m respectively. Within the experimental error of ±0.1 eV in the band offset measurements, the masses can be valued as 0.42m and 0.58m as reported earlier [6,7]. This ratio describes the ratio of the photo-emitted electron or hole kinetic energies during photoemission into the oxide conduction and valence bands as …”

“…The corrected oxide voltages for electron and hole conduction through the oxide in an n-channel silicon MOSFET biased in inversion has been formulated in a recent report [7]. It is presented here again for reference.…”

“…The FN tunneling slope constants are the only measured parameters that are used to determine the above MOS device parameters. The study will facilitate simulation of FN tunneling through a MOS device at high fields, and consequently estimate its breakdown field strength and the onset field for FN tunneling [7]. This FN technique called BOEMDET of characterizing an MIS structure is an alternative option to the photoemission spectroscopic measurements of band offsets and bandgap.…”

“…Two suitable amorphous dielectric materials for CMOS applications are thermal SiO 2 and Jet Vapor Deposited (JVD) silicon nitride that exhibit only FN tunneling because of negligible bulk traps [11,12]. In a MOS device, FN tunneling mechanism can be utilized to determine the conduction and valence band offsets with Si<100> surface, the electron and hole effective masses in SiO 2 , and determination of the unknown bandgap of SiO 2 [6,7]. This is the subject of the present study, but it has a different perspective.…”

“…The reviews describe research on various material issues pertaining to dielectric material for CMOS applications. The conduction through these dielectrics at high fields greater than 8MV/cm is described by the Fowler-Nordheim (FN) tunneling mechanism [3][4][5][6][7]. They contain traps in the bulk that causes Poole-Frenkel conduction at intermediate oxide fields of 5-7 MV/cm [8,9].…”