A new insight into the degradation behavior of the LDD N-MOSFET during dynamic hot-carrier stressing

Abstract

A new degradation behavior of the LDD N-MOSFET during dynamic hot-carrier stress is presented. Increased degradation occurs during gate pulse transition, and involves hot-hole injection that initially begins in the oxide-spacer region, and later propagates to the channel region. Experimental results clearly show that increased degradation of the linear drain current and transconductance are mainly due to hole-induced interface traps in the oxide-spacer region. Electron trapping at hole-induced oxide defects, on the other hand, is mainly responsible for the enhanced threshold voltage shift in the late stage, when hole injection coincides with electron injection in the channel region.