Hot-electron trapping activation energy in PMOSFET's under mechanical stress

Abstract

Mechanical stress-induced change in hot-electron trapping activation energy (E/sub a/) was observed in PMOSFET's for the first time. E/sub a/ was found to continuously decrease from 80 meV to 44 meV under compressive mechanical stress (/spl verbar//spl sigma//spl verbar/<100 MPa). From the detrapping behavior after hot-electron injection, E/sub a/ is determined by an Arrhenius plot. The new finding thus indicates that the Si-H or Si-SiO/sub 2/ interface dangling bonds are distorted by mechanical stress, resulting in E/sub a/ lowering.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>