Richard Jiles

May 8th 2016

EE 332 Final Project

EE 332 Final Project MOS Capacitor

Executive Summary
The goal of this project was to simulate the characteristics of a MOS capacitor given various parameters
and observe its change in properties with different parameter values. We were specifically concerned
with the VT of the MOS capacitor and its relation to charge that was on the interface of the device. Our
primary adjustment to the device was the relative permittivity for the Si2 material. Increasing its
relative value from 3.9 to 14, a significant change. While the change of the relative permittivity was
roughly 3.5x, we saw less than a 2x change in VT values.

Simulation Theory
In order to collect good results from this test, we needed to follow certain key equations which describe
how a MOS Capacitor will function. We obtained these equations from the Streetman textbook and they
are as follows:

(1) =

(2) = 2
(3) =

(4) =

ln( )

Our base and most fundamental equation is (1), whereby we have the ability to plot the Threshold
voltage versus the interface charge at the oxide silicon interface. However some elements in the first
equation are not simply constants or given values. We need to also find a way to describe other values
that are given in the other three equations (2, 3, 4) that are dependent on things like temperature. The
1

Richard Jiles

EE 332 Final Project

May 8th 2016

most important thing to realize that has a temperature dependent variable that is the intrinsic
carrier concentrationn . Thankfully, we are not plotting against temperature to view its changes, but this
would be considered in real world applications where temperature would fluctuate. Now that we have,
full descriptions of the variables we need to find the constants and their associated values.
= 3.9 14
= 11.8
= 8.85 10^ 14
( ) = 0.1 10^ 5
= 10^16
= 1.6 10^ 19
= 10^16
= 1.5 10^10

= 0.0259

= 0.95

Results
We the fundamental description of a MOS capacitor we can find and plot the results for the system. We
just need to define a range of our interface charge value and rune the code in Matlab, which we have
input the equations from above. We find that the results from figures 1 and 2 show a change occurs on
the MOS Capacitor and that for a good range of interface charge values, a negative gate bias is required
to put the device in a normal operating mode. The graphs on the next page will illustrate the linear
dependency that the relative Gate voltage has. Figure 1 shows the device at a permittivity of 3.9 and
figure 2 shows it at 14. As to whether this is a significant or noticeable change is another question. If the
other circuitry that is depending on the MOS Capacitors operation is precise enough to the 0.1 voltage
level then we can conclude it is a good enough shift. Conversely if the circuitry is not precise enough we
may need to cause a bigger shift by such means as reducing the oxide thickness as well as increasing the

Richard Jiles

EE 332 Final Project

May 8th 2016

Richard Jiles

EE 332 Final Project

Appendix

May 8th 2016

Richard Jiles

EE 332 Final Project

May 8th 2016

Richard Jiles

EE 332 Final Project

May 8th 2016