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The characterization of impact-ionization (II) and stress-induced damage in 28-nm bulk n-channel MOSFETs is used to identify the mechanisms for carrier-induced interface trap generation (ITG) from 300 K to 77 K. The energy-driven paradigm of hot carrier effects is used to study carrier-induced ITG and its temperature dependence, and to analyze the influence of electron-electron scattering (EES) on carrier-induced degradation of ultra-short channel devices. The analysis clearly illustrates the significant role of EES in the hot (i.e., high-energy) carriers single particle mechanism of ITG, as well as its contribution to the cold (i.e., low-energy) carriers multiple particle mechanism of ITG. This is evidenced through extractions of ITG lifetime as a function of temperature and stress current from measurements of 28 nm n-channel devices. We apply a simple model to discuss the impact of EES on the experimentally observed trends for II and ITG rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the hot-carrier-induced performance degradation in a cascode low-noise amplifier using SiGe heterojunction bipolar transistors. Changes in device characteristics due to accelerated hot-carrier stress are examined experimentally. The vertical bipolar inter-company (VBIC) model parameters extracted from measured device data before and after stress are used in Cadence SpectreRF simulation to evaluate the circuit performance degradation [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Phase noise can be regarded as the most severe cause of performance degradation in the orthogonal frequency multiplexing division (OFDM) systems. The hot-carriers (HCs), found in the CMOS synchronization circuits, are the high-energy charge carriers that degrade the MOSFET devices' performance by increasing the threshold voltage required to operate the MOSFETs. The HC effect manifests itself as the phase noise whose level increases with the continued MOSFET operation and results in the performance degradation of the voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) built on the MOSFETs. Nowadays, the HC effect is particularly evident in the short-channel MOSFET devices. Consequently, the MOSFET instability due to this effect leads to the OFDM system performance degradation. In this paper, we analyze the OFDM performance in the presence of synchronization errors induced by the hot-carrier effect. We derive the relationship between the OFDM system performance and the hot-carrier effect in terms of a crucial parameter, the MOSFET threshold voltage. We also present a new general phase noise model for the OFDM systems influenced by the hot-carrier effect, which is based on our new phase noise mask function. According to our simulations, we show that the OFDM bit-error-rate evaluation using our new phase noise model in the presence of the HC effect can be different in three orders-of-magnitude from the existing models independent of the HC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent literature, a controversy has arisen over the question whether deuterium improves the stability of the MOS gate dielectric. In particular, the influence of deuterium incorporation on the bulk oxide quality is not clear. In this letter, deuterium or hydrogen is introduced during either the gate oxidation, postoxidation anneal, and/or the postmetal anneal (PMA). The oxide bulk degradation was evaluated using charge-to-breakdown and stress-induced leakage current; and the oxide interface degradation using hot-carrier degradation and low-frequency noise. The obtained results show that the oxide bulk does not benefit from the presence of deuterium, regardless of the stage of deuterium introduction, or the gate oxide thickness. The oxide interface is more stable only when deuterium is introduced in the PMA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]