Experimental evidence of inelastic tunneling in stress-induced leakage current

A new experimental method for investigating the transport characteristics of stress-induced leakage current (SILC) is presented. The quantum results of impact ionization for electrons involved in the SILC process are measured directly from the change in the source and gate currents of p-MOSFETs prior and after stressing. Experimental results show that the measured energy of electrons in the SILC process is lower by approximately 1.5 eV than that expected in the elastic tunneling process.