Dominant mechanisms of hot-carrier degradation in short- and long-channel transistors

Using our physics-based model for hot-carrier degradation (HCD) we analyze the role of such important processes as the Si-H bond-breakage induced by a solitary hot carrier, bond dissociation triggered by the miltivibrational excitation of the bond, and electron-electron scattering. To check the roles of these mechanisms we use planar CMOS devices with gate lengths varying between 65 and 300 nm as well as a high-voltage nLDMOS transistor. We show that the current HCD paradigm needs to be revised because the aforementioned processes can be crucial even under stress conditions at which they are supposed to be weak.