Series resistance effect on time zero dielectrics breakdown characteristics of MOSCAP with ultra-thin EOT high-k/metal gate stacks

The time zero dielectric breakdown characteristics of MOSCAP with ultra-thin EOT high-k metal gate stacks are studied. The TZDB results show an abnormal area dependence due to the series resistance effect. The series resistance components extracted from the Fowler-Nordheim tunneling relation are attributed to the spreading resistance due to the asymmetry electrodes. Based on a series model to eliminate the series resistance effect, an area acceleration dependence is obtained by correcting the TZDB results. The area dependence follows Poisson area scaling rules, which indicates that the mechanism of TZDB is the same as TDDB and could be considered as a trap generation process.

Strain induced changes in performance of strained-Si/strained-Si1-yGey/relaxed-Si1-xGex MOSFETs and circuits for digital applications

Growing a silicon(Si) layer on top of stacked Si-germanium(Ge) compressive layer can introduce a tensile strain on the former, resulting in superior device characteristics. Such a structure can be used for high performance complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor(CMOS) circuits. Down scaling metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors(MOSFETs) into the deep submicron/nanometer regime forces the source(S) and drain(D) series resistance to become comparable with the channel resistance and thus it cannot be neglected. Owing to the persisting technological importance of strained Si devices, in this work, we propose a multi-iterative technique for evaluating the performance of strained-Si/strained-Si_(1-y)Ge_y/relaxed-Si_(1-x)Ge_x MOSFETs and its related circuits in the presence of S/D series resistance, leading to the development of a simulator that can faithfully plot the performance of the device and related digital circuits. The impact of strain on device/circuit performance is also investigated with emphasis on metal gate and high-k dielectric materials.