Effectiveness of Repairing Hot Carrier Degradation in Si p-FinFETs Using Gate Induced Drain Leakage

this study, the gate induced drain leakage (GIDL) of Si p-FinFET and its recovery effect on hot carrier degradation (HCD) were experimentally studied to further its physical understanding. It's found that HCD recovery by GIDL is more closely related to the electric field assisted discharging from oxide traps than the thermal activation. By increasing the GIDL bias, a HCD recovery ratio of up to 80% can be achieved; however, combining GIDL with an increase in environmental temperature from 75 degrees C to 150 degrees C cannot further improve the HCD recovery ratio. As the GIDL bias increases, an extraordinary interface state generation and electron injection can be observed, which responds to the remaining HCD and over-repairs the oxide trap related to the HCD. Furthermore, the effectiveness of the recovery effect of GIDL on long-term HCD was verified by comparison with HCD/GIDL and HCD/relaxation cycling experiments.

Automated summary

This study experimentally investigated the gate induced drain leakage (GIDL) of Si p-FinFET and its recovery effect on hot carrier degradation (HCD) to gain a better understanding of the underlying physics. It was found that HCD recovery through GIDL is mainly influenced by electric field-assisted discharging from oxide traps rather than thermal activation. By increasing the GIDL bias, a recovery ratio of up to 80% for HCD can be achieved. However, combining GIDL with a temperature increase from 75°C to 150°C does not further enhance the HCD recovery ratio. The study also observed extraordinary interface state generation and electron injection as the GIDL bias increases, which over-repairs the oxide trap related to HCD. Furthermore, the effectiveness of GIDL in long-term HCD recovery was confirmed through comparison with HCD/GIDL and HCD/relaxation cycling experiments.