Full-band Monte Carlo investigation of hot carrier trends in the scaling of metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors

A full-band Monte Carlo (MC) device simulator has been used to study the effects of device scaling on hot electrons in different types of n-channel metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) structures. Simulated devices include a conventional MOSFET with a single source/drain implant, a lightly-doped drain (LDD) MOSFET, a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) MOSFET, and a MOSFET built on an epitaxial layer on top of a heavily-doped ground plane. Different scaling techniques have been applied to the devices, to analyze the effects on the electric field and on the energy distributions of the electrons, as well as on drain, substrate, and gate currents. The results provide a physical basis for understanding the overall behavior of impact ionization and gate oxide injection and how they relate to scaling. The observed nonlocality of transport phenomena and the nontrivial relationship between electric fields and transport parameters indicate that simpler models cannot adequately predict hot carrier behavior at the channel lengths studied (sub-0.3-μm). In addition, our results suggest that below 0.15 μm, the established device configurations (e.g. LDD) that are successful at suppressing the hot carrier population for longer channel lengths, become less useful and their cost-effectiveness for future circuit applications needs to be reevaluated