The Energy Driven Hot Carrier Model

The Understanding and Compact Modeling of Reliability in Modern Metal–Oxide–Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistors: From Single-Mode to Mixed-Mode Mechanisms

“…As shown in Figure 1 , taking a typical inverter circuit as an example, devices undergo three typical biasing conditions: gate voltage (V gs ) > 0 V, drain voltage (V ds ) = 0 V; |V gs | > 0 V, |V ds | > 0 V and V gs = 0 V, |V ds | > 0 V. The degradation phenomena observed in NMOS or PMOS devices under the bias condition of |V gs | > 0 V, V ds = 0 V are, respectively, termed positive bias temperature instability (PBTI) [ 24 , 25 , 26 ] and negative bias temperature instability (NBTI) [ 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 ]. The degradation phenomenon observed when the device is under the bias condition of |V gs | > 0 V, |V ds | > 0 V is referred to as hot carrier degradation (HCD) [ 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 ]. The degradation observed under the bias condition of V gs = 0 V, |V ds | > 0 V is termed off-state degradation (OSD) [ 42 , 43 , 44 ].…”

Recovery of hot-carrier degraded nMOSFETs

“…HCI in older generations of devices could be described by LEM, however, it simplifies the physical processes and interactions that take place. Charge carriers may not lose all energy upon collision and since charge carrier-phonon collision is the dominant collision and energy transfer mechanism, the change in energy is limited to the optical phonon energy (E = 63 meV in silicon) [109]. Furthermore, LEM assumes that a drain-source bias of at least 3.7 V is necessary to overcome the interface barrier and induce degradation, contradicting degradation that takes place at smaller biases [110].…”

“…The rate of impact ionization in the device is proportional to the formation of new interface defects and can be described by [109,118]:…”