Hot Carrier Monitoring in NMOS Transistors by Visible Light Emission

In this paper NMOS devices characterized by their light emission (Bremsstrahlung) are discussed. A comparison of electrical and optical measurements of NMOS LDD short channel transistors is given. Applications of the optical investigations are the determination of the controllable operating region and the effective channel length of NMOS transistors. As the main point the evaluation of the operating conditions concerning the avalanche hot electrons by contemplating light emission at 880 nm is introduced. Monitoring of long time degradation due to avalanche hot electrons is also presented.