The Impact of Uni-axial Strain on Low Frequency Noise in Nanoscale p-Channel Metal–Oxide–Semiconductor Field Effect Transistors under Dynamic Body Biases

Abstract

The impact of local strain on low frequency noise (LFN) in p-channel metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistor (pMOSFET) is investigated under dynamic body biases. For 60 nm pMOSFET, the uni-axial compressive strain from embedded SiGe (e-SiGe) in source/drain can contribute 75% effective mobility ( eff ) enhancement and the proportional improvement in current (I DS ) as well as transconductance (G m ). However, the strained pMOSFET suffer more than 80% higher LFN (S ID =I D 2 ) compared with the control pMOSFET free from strain engineering. The measured LFN can be consistently explained by mobility fluctuation model and the increase of Hooge parameter ( H ) appears as a key factor responsible for the higher LFN in strained pMOSFET. Forward body biases (FBB) is proposed as an effective method adapted to nanoscale devices for improving eff and suppressing LFN, without resort to strain engineering. #