Impact of stress-memorization technique induced-tensile strain on low frequency noise in n-channel metal-oxide-semiconductor transistors

The use of low-frequency (1/f) noise to evaluate stress-memorization technique (SMT) induced-stress in n-channel metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors is investigated. Through observing Hooge's parameter alpha(H), we found that the unified model can properly interpret the 1/f noise mechanism in our device. On the other hand, lower normalized input-referred noise (LSVG) level in number-fluctuation-dominated regime (region I) and smaller curvature of LSVG versus V-GS-V-TH in mobility-fluctuation-dominated regime (region II) are attributed to the reduced tunneling attenuation length and Coulomb scattering coefficient, respectively. It represents an intrinsic benefit of 1/f noise behavior stemming from SMT-induced more strain in short channel device. (C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3491211]