SiO2-induced substrate current and its relation to positive charge in field-effect transistors

Abstract

Experimental data are presented for the substrate current (holes), which accompanies electron injection into the oxide of n-channel field-effect transistor structures, in the tunneling regime. Dependencies of the effect on oxide thickness and on the metal gate material were investigated. An inverse relation was found between the initial rise time of oxide current transients and both the electron and hole currents. It is shown that these initial current increases are related to positive charge, therefore a correlation exists between the positive charge and electron or hole currents. The strength of impact ionization in SiO2 is discussed on the basis of band-structure arguments and it is concluded that there are difficulties in explaining the substrate current by impact ionization. A technique for fast measurements of capacitance-voltage shifts at the end of an applied high field pulse is described.