Investigation of the Temperature Dependence of Hot-Carrier Degradation in Si MOSFETs Using Spectroscopic Charge Pumping.

The temperature dependence of defect generation due to hot-carrier stress (HCS) is investigated in long-channel nMOSFETs with a SiO2 insulator. In order to improve the understanding of hot-carrier degradation, we systematically investigate the impact of temperature on the HCS-induced trap densities and their energetic profiles using standard and spectroscopic charge pumping (CP). With the aid of polyheaters, which can rapidly change the device temperature, recovery of the degradation at higher temperatures is minimized by quickly switching the temperature to the characterization temperature of −60 °C. In order to be able to quantitatively analyze the trap profiles measured with spectroscopic CP, a method for finding the correct capture cross section is suggested. Both CP methods yield comparable results, and it is shown that the same types of defects are created at all temperatures. In agreement with the literature, lower stress temperatures during HCS result in the creation of a larger number of defects for our long-channel devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]