HOT CARRIER INJECTION

➔ Reductions in device dimensions without corresponding

reductions in operating voltages.

➔ Due to high Electric Fields.

➔ Hot Carrier: High Kinetic Energy Carriers.

➔ They can get trapped in areas where they shouldn't be.

 Injection Mechanisms
● Drain avalanche hot carrier (DAHC) injection

● Channel hot electron (CHE) injection

● Substrate hot electron (SHE) injection

● Secondary generated hot electron (SGHE) injection

DAHC

● Impact ionization
● Gate current
● Substrate's drift
current
● High substrate
current can facilitate
latch-up
 CHE

● (VG and VD) >> Vs

● VG ≈ VD
● Carriers in the channel are propelled toward the oxide even
before they reach the drain area
 SHE

● Substrate back bias is very positive or very negative.

● Carriers of one type in the substrate are driven by the substrate

field toward the Si-SiO2 interface
 SGHE

● Similar to DAHC
● The main difference, however, is the influence of the substrate's
back bias in the hot carrier generation.
 ELECTON INJECTION HOLE INJECTION

Energy Barrier = 3.1 eV Energy barrier = 4.8 eV

Electron Injection is More Likely Hole Injection is more likely

Electron mobility in SiO2 is Higher Hole Mobility in SiO2 is Lower

Electrons are less likely to be trapped Holes are more likely to be trapped
 Degradation
● Modulation of the surface potential and carrier mobilities at the
surface of the semiconductor

● These phenomena alter the device current characteristics and

reduce their operating lifetime

● Degradation processes are slow during circuit operation.

 Drain Current Characteristics
Threshold Voltage

Linear extrapolated threshold voltage Saturation extrapolated threshold voltage

W
Ids= μ C ox (V GS −V th )V DS
L
√ I DS = √ 1W
2 L
μ C ox (V GS −V T )
 Constant current threshold voltage Short Channel Device

Channel Transconductance

Gm (V DS )=
[ ]
∂ I DS
∂ V GS V DS =constant
=
W
L
μ C ox V DS
 Effect of Hot-Carrier Injection on Drain
Current Characteristics

IDS - VDS IDS - VG

Drain Current characteristics measured before and after a typical hot carrier stress
 Normal Mode Reverse Mode

●The damaged region is “masked” by the pinch-off region during

IDS –VDS characteristics in normal-mode

The whole region is “visible” during reverse-mode IDS –VDS

●

measurements.
HOT-CARRIER DEGRADATION IN N-
CHANNEL MOSFETS
● Degradation is due to injection of high-energy carriers from the
channel of the device into the gate oxide.

● The physical mechanisms of degradation are strongly depends

on the relative concentration of electrons and holes injected at
any given location along the channel.

● The injection of carriers is determined by two factors

● The concentration of carriers in the channel

● The accelerating lateral electric field near the point of injection.

 Carrier Injection and gate Current

The dependence of carrier injection and gate current on the gate

bias in a conventional n-channel MOSFET.
 Substrate current

The initial increase in substrate current is due to increase in the

carrier supply while the decrease in substrate current at high gate
biases is due to a decrease in the lateral electric field.