Hot-carrier injection suppression due to the nitride-oxide LDD spacer structure

The hot-carrier effects in silicon nitride lightly doped drain (LDD) spacer MOSFETs are discussed. It is found that the oxide thickness under the nitride film spacer affects the hot-carrier effects. The thinner the LDD spacer oxide becomes, the larger the initial drain current degradation becomes at the DC stress test and the smaller the stress time dependence becomes. After the DC stress test, reduced drain current recovers at room temperature. These phenomena are due to the large hot-carrier injection into the LDD nitride spacer, because the nitride film barrier height is much less than the silicon oxide barrier height. Therefore, it is necessary to form the LDD spacer oxide, in order to suppress the large hot-carrier injection in the nitride film LDD spacer MOSFET. The drain current shift mechanism in the nitride spacer MOSFETs is discussed, considering the lucky electron model